Provincetown History Snippet: Winning the Race

During Boston’s Old Home Week Celebration in August 1907, a cup was offered by Sir Thomas Lipton for a 42-mile fishermen’s race in Massachusetts Bay—from Provincetown to Gloucester and back—with a purported value of $5,000.

Captain Marion Perry entered, possibly at the instigation of his wife, for whom his schooner was named. The Rose Dorothea had been designed by Thomas McManus and built at the Tarr & James Shipyard in Essex in 1905. She was 108.7 feet long, weighed 108 tons and had a crew of 26 men.

The boats were on the last leg of the race when the top of the Rose Dorothea’s foremast split. They turned to return home and suddenly the winds shifted and the competition was blown off-course. Disabled but still sailing, the Rose Dorothea limped into Provincetown harbor and was awarded the cup.

The Lipton Cup belongs permanently to Provincetown, as the race was never held again. It’s on display at the library, along with a half-scale model of the Rose Dorothea.

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