The World's Fastest Man by Michael Kranish

Author:Michael Kranish
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scribner

CHAPTER 15

Voyage of the Titans

In late June of 1901, a triumphant Taylor arrived in Southampton, England, preparing to board one of the greatest steamships of the day, the SS Deutschland, an even faster vessel than the one he had taken to France. The journey would be hailed as one of the most memorable in the history of the Hamburg-America line, featuring a colorful collection of some of America’s wealthiest men. Newspapers were rife with talk that the titans were plotting to take control of America’s financial system. Reporters tracked the departure of the ship, speculated about the parties and private conversations, and published front-page stories that featured key players. “Seldom, if ever, has one transatlantic liner brought across at one time such a number of well-known people as the Deutschland,” reported the New York Times. Taylor saw it all unfold.

Before he boarded the Deutschland in Southampton, Taylor had been given a rousing send-off. One observer marveled that Taylor seemed to be better known than another notable passenger, an heir to one of the world’s great fortunes. “The Negro bicycle phenomenon, Major Taylor, departed from the European shore amid the huzzas of the assembled multitude,” a newspaper reported. “William K. Vanderbilt, only a poor multi-millionaire, departed at the same time—unnoticed. Such, indeed, is life.”

In fact, Vanderbilt would have been hard to miss. The dashing heir, who easily afforded losing the $3,000 he had wagered on Taylor’s first race against Jacquelin, arrived in his newly purchased Mercedes, which he stored on the Deutschland. For good measure, he also brought back “two experienced chauffeurs” who were more than liveried drivers; they were experts who would help train Vanderbilt to race the car. Vanderbilt would go on to his own racing career, at least on the auto track, setting speed records at places such as Daytona Beach, and he eventually created a company that built the nation’s first major paved road for cars, the forty-five-mile Long Island Motor Parkway. Having bet on Taylor in Paris and heard so much about the bicycle races during his time there, Vanderbilt could not have missed the fact that Taylor was along for the voyage on the Deutschland.

One after another, titans of American industry boarded with their entourages. The heads of banks and railroads and shipping lines found their cabins and made their way to the cafe, famous for its high, square ceiling of glass. The one-year-old Deutschland was the “queen of the seas,” one of the largest ships ever built, and the fastest ever to cross the ocean. Those who loved speed were drawn to her underbelly of power. She could burn through 572 tons of coal per day, heated in 112 furnaces, fueling a horsepower of nearly 40,000, thrusting energy to a 59-foot crankshaft, hissing through cylinders, cycling through pistons, exhaling through four massive smokestacks. The ship shuddered from its strength. As she neared a top speed of 23 knots, deck chairs vibrated and passengers clung to railings as the vessel powered through the choppy seas.

The next millionaire to board was a seventy-year-old man with a steely gaze.

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