Antonio Nicolo Gasparo Jacobsen (1850-1921)

The Reliance, owned by Cornelius Vanderbilt III, won the America's Cup 25 August 1903 racing against the Shamrock III, outfitted and owned by Irish millionaire, Thomas Lipton, by three miles, such a great margin that the competitor's ship was scrapped after the race. The designer of the Reliance, Nathanael Greene Herreshoff designed a ship that was longer, faster and had larger sails than any other competitor single-masted "J series" racing ship at the time. Antonio Jacobsen's portrait of the ship, painted in 1911, commemorates her most important race eight years earlier. Dismantled in 1913 the yacht was scrapped in South Brooklyn.