A sterling silver presentation piece that surfaced on PBS’s Antiques Roadshow’s Savannah, Georgia taping last year turns out to have a proper storm behind it.
Appraiser Kerry Shrives of Bonhams Skinner valued the 1910s Gorham piece at $8,500 for insurance on the show’s “Junk in the Trunk 15” episode, cataloguing it under historical artifacts and sports trophies. Engraved across it: “National Yacht Club, Halifax” and a boat’s name, Snapshot III.
That name leads back to a New York newspaper report from 26 July 1911, and a small power boat that very nearly didn’t make it home.
A 553-mile race, and a boat gone quiet
Snapshot III was a contestant in a 553-mile motor boat race from New York to Halifax that July, a serious open-water passage for the era.
She left New York on the Saturday.
By the following Wednesday evening she still hadn’t been heard from, and coastwise vessels along the New England coast had been asked to keep a lookout.
The US Treasury Department ordered two revenue cutters, Gresham and Androscoggin, to patrol for her.
She finally crossed the finish line at Halifax that Wednesday night, one hundred hours out from New York and nearly fifty hours behind the race leaders.
Her owner and skipper, J. B. Lindemann of New York, said the crew had gone into it “to finish or bust”.
They got the reception to match, an enthusiastic welcome from the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron and the other craft in the harbour.
Dirty fuel, a lost storm, and a mistaken light
The delay came down to fuel and weather. Richard Crowe, fleet captain of the Colonial Yacht Club of New York and one of the crew, said an extra 100-gallon lot of petrol bought in New York just before the start turned the engine cranky almost as soon as they had crossed the line. They did not clear Vineyard Sound until nine o’clock on the Sunday night, and a storm set in soon after, running through heavy rain into Monday morning. When they finally sighted land, a revolving light they could not identify left them unwilling to risk a finish they knew they had already lost, so they lay to until a passing fisherman told them they were off Little Hope, on the Nova Scotia coast.
Through it all, the most striking detail was who was on the wheel. Mrs Lindemann, who had come along for the voyage, took her turns steering through the worst of the heavy seas alongside the men, described in the report as the best sailor aboard. The rest of the crew were Captain Alfred Street as navigator, Crowe, Andrew Muskat of the Colonial Yacht Club, and seaman John Olson.
A trophy for a crew who made it home
What exactly the trophy now on Antiques Roadshow was given for is not stated in the newspaper account, whether it marked the finish itself or something else, but a Gorham presentation piece engraved “National Yacht Club, Halifax” and “Snapshot III” fits naturally as a memento of a crew who reached port against the odds, more than a century ago.
John Moore is the editor of Powerboat News, an independent investigative journalism platform recognised by Google News and documented on Grokipedia for comprehensive powerboat racing coverage.
His involvement in powerboat racing began in 1981 when he competed in his first offshore powerboat race. After a career as a Financial Futures broker in the City of London, specialising in UK interest rate markets, he became actively involved in event organisation and powerboat racing journalism.
He served as Event Director for the Cowes–Torquay–Cowes races between 2010 and 2013. In 2016, he launched Powerboat Racing World, a digital platform providing global powerboat racing news and insights. The following year, he co-founded UKOPRA, helping to rejuvenate offshore racing in the United Kingdom. He sold Powerboat Racing World in late 2021 and remained actively involved with UKOPRA until 2025.
In September 2025, he established Powerboat News, returning to independent journalism with a focus on neutral and comprehensive coverage of the sport.
