The Hales Trophy (officially the North Atlantic Blue Riband Challenge Trophy
) is an award for the fastest Atlantic crossing by a commercial passenger vessel.
The award was created in 1935 when
Harold K. Hales, a British politician and owner of Hales Brothers shipping company, donated the trophy
to be a permanent, tangible expression of the
Blue Riband
The Blue Riband () is an unofficial accolade given to the passenger liner crossing the Atlantic Ocean in regular service with the record highest average speed. The term was borrowed from horse racing and was not widely used until after 1910. T ...
, the unofficial accolade then given for this feat. Hales also wished to formalize the rules regarding the contest, which up to then had no official form, though they were, by tradition, widely recognized. The rules for the Hales Trophy were different from the traditional rules for the Blue Riband, and changed several times. For example, the Hales Trophy was originally only awarded for westbound records.
[Kludas p17]
The trophy was awarded to just three Blue Riband holders during the express liner era; to the Italian liner ''
Rex'' in 1935, the French ''
Normandie'' in 1936, and the American ''
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
'' in 1952. Cunard's ''
Queen Mary'', Blue Riband holder in 1936 and again from 1938 until 1952, did not receive the award
for various reasons.
Following the retirement of ''United States'' in 1969 the award languished, until revived in 1990 for the
Incat
Incat Tasmania is an Australian manufacturer of high-speed craft (HSC) catamaran ferries. Its greatest success has been with large, sea going passenger and vehicle ferries, but it has also built military transports and since 2015 it has built s ...
built passenger/car ferry ''
Hoverspeed Great Britain
HSC ''High Speed Jet'' is a ocean-going catamaran built in 1990 by Incat for Hoverspeed and currently owned by Seajets. In 1990, as ''Hoverspeed Great Britain'', she took the Hales Trophy for the fastest eastbound transatlantic journey, making ...
'' when she established a new speed record for a commercial vessel on her eastbound delivery voyage without passengers that year.
The trophy has been won twice since then, each time by an Incat built vessel.
The trophy
In 1935,
Harold K. Hales (1868–1942), a member of the UK Parliament and owner of a shipping company, commissioned a Sheffield goldsmith to produce a large trophy to be presented to the fastest ship crossing the Atlantic.
The four-foot-tall, nearly 100-pound Hales Trophy is made of solid silver and heavy gilt fashioned with a globe resting on two winged figures of Victory standing on a base of carved green onyx, with an enamelled blue ribbon encircling the middle, and decorated with models of
galleons
Galleons were large, multi-decked sailing ships first used as armed cargo carriers by European states from the 16th to 18th centuries during the age of sail and were the principal vessels drafted for use as warships until the Anglo-Dutch Wa ...
, modern ocean liners and statues of
Neptune
Neptune is the eighth planet from the Sun and the farthest known planet in the Solar System. It is the fourth-largest planet in the Solar System by diameter, the third-most-massive planet, and the densest giant planet. It is 17 times ...
and
Amphitrite
In ancient Greek mythology, Amphitrite (; grc-gre, Ἀμφιτρίτη, Amphitrítē) was the goddess of the sea, the queen of the sea, and the wife of Poseidon. She was a daughter of Nereus and Doris (or Oceanus and Tethys).Roman, L., & Rom ...
, god and goddess of the sea. The trophy is surmounted by a figure depicting speed pushing a three-stacked liner against a figure symbolizing the forces of the Atlantic, which is represented in blue enamel with the traditional ocean liner route indicated by a red enamelled line.
History
The rules for the trophy did not correspond to the traditional rules for the Blue Riband, in that the trophy was to be awarded only to a passenger ship achieving the fastest speed in the westbound direction.
Other rule changes further complicated the situation. For example, before the trophy was finished, Hales made arrangements to present the trophy to the owners of ''Rex'', the then Blue Riband record-holder.
In the meantime, ''Normandie'' took the record and Hales changed the rules so that any new claimant must wait three months to give the current holder a chance to beat the new record.
In August 1935, the trophy was presented to the ''Rex'',
and then transferred to the ''Normandie'' two months later.
Cunard White Star's ''Queen Mary'' was the next winner, but Cunard White Star refused to accept the trophy. The ''Queens captain explained that, "We don't believe in racing on the Atlantic, or in blue ribands, or trophies and the like."
Hales again changed the rules so that the trophy could only be won by a "non-British ship".
Hales died in 1942 and the location of the trophy was unknown when the United States Lines (USL) started planning the maiden voyage of its new record breaker, the ''United States''. The trophy was found at the Sheffield goldsmith where it had been originally made.
In 1952, USL accepted the trophy at a ceremony attended by 400 guests.
It was displayed in USL's New York City headquarters until after the ''United States'' was taken out of service in 1969. Ten years later, the trophy was transferred to the
U.S. Merchant Marine Academy's museum as a relic.
![HoverSpeed Great Britain](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/HoverSpeed_Great_Britain.jpg)
In 1986,
Richard Branson
Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950) is a British billionaire, entrepreneur, and business magnate. In the 1970s he founded the Virgin Group, which today controls more than 400 companies in various fields.
Branson expressed ...
was successful in setting a new eastbound transatlantic speed record in the powerboat ''Challenger II''. He was not awarded the Hales trophy because his boat was not a commercial vessel. In 1990, the catamaran passenger/car ferry ''
Hoverspeed Great Britain
HSC ''High Speed Jet'' is a ocean-going catamaran built in 1990 by Incat for Hoverspeed and currently owned by Seajets. In 1990, as ''Hoverspeed Great Britain'', she took the Hales Trophy for the fastest eastbound transatlantic journey, making ...
'' was scheduled to take a delivery voyage from her Australian builders to begin cross channel operations. Her owners confirmed with the Hales trophy trustees in the UK that their vessel would be eligible for the trophy if they beat the ''United States'' record, even though the ship would not actually carry passengers on the trip. The trustees ruled that the ship still met the criteria. After ''Hoverspeed Great Britain's'' successful voyage, the Maritime Museum considered challenging the decision on the grounds that Hales donated the award for ships providing Atlantic passenger service,
but decided not to because of the cost of legal fees. In 1992, the Italian powerboat ''
Destriero
''Destriero'' is a long, wide, 400-ton displacement, yacht built by Fincantieri in their Muggiano yard at La Spezia in 1991. She is fitted with three GE Aviation LM1600 gas turbines totalling , providing her with a maximum speed of . ''Destrie ...
'' made a voyage at , breaking ''Challenger II's'' record, though she was not awarded the Hales Trophy either. In June 1998 the trophy was won by ''
Catalonia
Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy.
Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the north ...
'' on her delivery voyage (without passengers) at , followed a month later by the current holder of the Hales Trophy, the catamaran ''Cat-Link V'' (now ''
Fjord Cat'') for a 1998 delivery voyage at .
The trophy resided on the premises of the owners of ''Cat-Link V'',Scandlines, until 2010 when they opted to put it on display in the lobby of The Danish Shipowners' Association, Amaliegade 33, Copenhagen. The Association, of which Scandlines is a member, then had it for a couple of years. An inter-active screen was created and installed, telling the highlights of the trophy's history, and a longer printed version with illustrations was placed next to the trophy case for all interested to take home. The trophy was subsequently returned to Scandlines' main office in Copenhagen, where it still stands.
Several replicas of the Hales Trophy exist.
In 1998
Carnival Cruise Lines
Carnival Cruise Line is an international cruise line with headquarters in Doral, Florida. The company is a subsidiary of Carnival Corporation & plc. Its logo is a funnel shaped like a whale's tail, with a red, white, and blue color scheme. This ...
commissioned a replica for display on its cruise ship
MS ''Paradise''. They also had a duplicate made, for permanent loan to the Merchant Marine Academy Museum.
INCAT, the builders of the last three winners of the Hales Trophy, are in possession of a museum quality replica which is displayed at their Fast Ferry Museum in
Hobart, Tasmania
Hobart ( ; Nuennonne/Palawa kani: ''nipaluna'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Home to almost half of all Tasmanians, it is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-smalle ...
. The formal records of the Hales Trophy Trustees are now lodged with Lloyds Register in London. Anyone wishing to access the formal records should contact Lloyds Register regarding obtaining permission to inspect the Hales Trophy Trust records.
Table of Hales Trophy winners
1935 to 1969 winners
Post 1969 winners
See also
*
Virgin Atlantic Challenge Trophy The Virgin Atlantic Challenge Trophy is an award for the fastest trans-Atlantic crossing by a surface vessel, one of several such awards that have grown out of the contest for the prestigious Blue Riband of the Atlantic.
The trophy was created fol ...
*
Columbus Atlantic Trophy The Columbus Atlantic Trophy is an award for the fastest non-stop two way crossing of the Atlantic Ocean within a given time period. It was inaugurated in 1992 by New York Yacht Club in concert with Costa Smeralda Yacht Club of Sardinia,
Trophy
Th ...
References
{{Reflist
Shipping awards