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Cochran, Alexander Smith (1874-1929) USA

Category: OWNERS

02087VWhen the New York Yacht Club was arranging for the defense of the America's Cup, Alexander Smith Cochran was asked if he would join the syndicate to build the Herreshoff boat.
He asked for a few hours to think it over, and then said:
"I have decided not to join your syndicate. If, however, you would like to have a second yacht built for the defense of the America's Cup I will build that yacht."

It was just what the club wanted. Unless a second yacht was built it would be very difficult to tune up the Herreshoff boat. Mr. Cochran's offer was one made by a sportsman and was accepted at once. Mr. Cochran commissioned William Gardner to design his new yacht, which was built at Lawley’s, near Boston, and named Vanitie. It is the popular boat of the trio of defenders because it represents one man.

CarpetCieAlexander Smith Cochran (February 28, 1874 – June 20, 1929 ) was born on February 28, 1874 to William Francis Cochran and Eva Smith. His grandfather was Alexander Smith, founder of the Alexander Smith Carpet Company.

Cochran inherited his money from his parents and his maternal uncle Warren B. Smith who left Cochran the bulk of an estate estimated to be worth $40 million in 1902. Cochran was the inheritor and principal owner of Alexander Smith & Sons Carpet mills of Yonkers, which by 1929 was the largest carpet manufacturer in the world. Cochran's properties included Glen Eyrie, in Colorado Springs.

Alexander Smith Cochran was graduated from Yale in 1896 and later inherited the Smith carpet works at Yonkers and a very large estate from his uncle. WestwardHe determined to fit himself to manage this estate and started in at once to learn the business from the bottom and for a long time worked in the factory, donning overalls and becoming acquainted with all the departments of the big factory at Yonkers.

He began yachting when very young with a small sloop and returned to the sport in 1910, when he purchased the sloop Avenger, then owned by Robert W. Emmons 2d, now manager of the Resolute. The transfer was made late in the season, and after a few weeks of racing Mr. Cochran commissioned Herreshoff to build a big schooner for racing in European waters. This was the Westward, which in the hands of the late Captain Barr won almost everything at Kiel and in the English Channel races. The Westward returned to this country the next year and raced successfully against the Elena, which had been built for Morton F. Plant.

At the close of the yachting season Mr. Cochran, who has rather delicate health, had to spend the winter in New-Mexico. Returning the next year in much better health, he gave $250,000 for the establishment of a hospital at Yonkers for consumptive. 02089SHe has always taken a lively interest in the welfare of his employees and was one of the first of the big manufacturers to introduce the cooperative system. Each man working in the Smith factories participates in the profits. Two years ago Mr. Cochran was interested in politics and supported the Progressive movement. He ran for Congress on the Progressive ticket.

He has managed the Vanitie himself, and while not as expert as some yachtsmen who have been active in the sport all their lives, he has learned fast and done extremely well. The Vanitie is a strong contender for the honor of defending the America's cup against the Shamrock. Mr. Cochran said recently that it did not matter to him which yacht was chosen as the defender. CochranAS2He had promised to assist in the defense of the cup and had built the Vanitie for that purpose. If she had succeeded in making the Resolute sail a minute or two faster than she would have done without the Vanitie then he had accomplished his purpose. His yacht is always ready to race. It has started in every event and has not parted a rope yarn since it was launched.

Cochran was very pro-British and after the declaration of war, he had chosen a different path of N.Y.Y.C. He volunteered to carry dispatches between the American embassies at London and Berlin, but on his first trip he was arrested at Bentheim and spent a night on the guard-room floor. Subsequently he turned his steam yacht Warrior over to the British navy, ordered the building of five motor torpedo boats for the Royal Navy, was commissioned commander in the Royal Naval Reserve (February 1916), and served as captain of the Warrior in West Indian waters and the North Atlantic. At the close of the war, he received the decoration of Commander of the Order of the British Empire.Warrior

Cochran became known as the "richest bachelor in New York," from press coverage of his marriage to the actress and singer Ganna Walska. Cochran met Walska in 1919, married her in Paris and briefly lived with her in his Murray Hill home. In 1920, divorce proceedings were started. They were completed with a settlement that amounted to $US3 million, a substantial sum in 1920.

Cochran died aged 55 on June 20, 1929 at Saranac Lake, N.Y., of pulmonary tuberculosis, which had threatened his life for many years.

 

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