1. George Steers was a designer of yachts best known for the famous racing yacht America.
12 Facts About George Steers
1. 2.
George Steers founded a shipyard with his brother, George Steers and Co, and died in an accident just as he was landing a major contract to build boats for the Russian Czar.
3.
George Steers was born in Washington, DC, USA, in 1819.
4.
George Steers became a journeyman for William H Brown, in whose service he assisted in building the Arctic and another of the Collins steamers.
5.
Between 1841 and 1850, George Steers built many yachts which were well known in their day.
6.
In 1849, George Steers designed the pilot boat Mary Taylor, with a radical new design in a schooner.
7.
In 1850, Steers designed the pilot boat Moses H Grinnell, No 1.
8.
George Steers is perhaps best known as the designer of the most famous racing yacht of all time, the schooner yacht America, for which the America's Cup is named.
9.
George Steers built one full-sized ship, the clipper ship Sunny South, which was sold to foreign owners after a voyage around Cape Horn to San Francisco, and captured in the Mozambique Channel in 1860 with a cargo of over 800 slaves.
10.
On 25 September 1856, George Steers, while driving a pair of horses to Glen Cove, Long Island, in order to bring home his wife, who had been visiting, was thrown from his wagon and mortally wounded.
11.
George Steers had just negotiated for $1,000,000 worth of boats for the Czar of Russia.
12.
George Steers is interred at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.