Susan Matilda Cunninghame-Graham Henn is celebrated as the first woman to compete in the America's Cup. Henn sailed on the 102 ft. (31m) steel cutter, GALATEA, which she also commissioned, financed, and commanded during part of the 1886 match against General Charles J. Paine’s MAYFLOWER.
Born in Rothesay on the Isle of Bute, Scotland, Susan was the daughter of Susan Jane Cunninghame-Graham, from an aristocratic Scottish family, and Robert Bartholomew, a scion of a wealthy cotton family from Glasgow. She grew up in a family of sailors who raced their yachts in the Firth of Clyde, where she developed her sailing skills.
In 1877, while sailing in the Mediterranean with her younger brother Robert, Susan met and married Lt. William Henn RN from County Clare, Ireland, a retired Royal Navy officer who was then racing and cruising his yacht. Their union set her on a course for a permanent life at sea, likely giving Susan more sea time experience than perhaps any other America's Cup sailor.
Following her brother's death, Susan used a significant inheritance to commission yacht designer J. Beavor-Webb to design GALATEA, the first all-steel yacht to challenge for the America's Cup. GALATEA was originally intended to compete in 1885 in a double Cup match alongside Sir Richard Sutton’s GENESTA. However, delays in GALATEA’s construction affecting her keel caused her to challenge the following year in 1886, facing MAYFLOWER, a design one generation newer than GALATEA. GALATEA’s design, like that of GENESTA, reflected the leading British yacht technology of the time, favoring cutters with long, deep, narrow hulls and a trans-Atlantic reputation for speed.
Instead of taking a faster and far more comfortable journey by steamship, Susan sailed on GALATEA across the Atlantic for the match. Although they lost both races in the Cup match, Susan demonstrated exceptional skill when she took charge of the yacht after her husband's health declined during the competition, and he became incapacitated. This made her not only the first woman to compete in but also the first woman to command a yacht in an America's Cup match. She earned respect in New York, with reports highlighting her enthusiasm and capabilities: “Owning to severe indisposition, Lt. Henn was to take hardly any part in the contests, but Mrs Henn engaged in the events with all the enthusiasm and skill of a masterful helmswoman.”
Her achievements were particularly groundbreaking, considering the social and legal restrictions placed on married women in Victorian society. They often faced barriers to joining yacht clubs and participating in the sport, despite some being skilled and experienced sailors.
After their America's Cup match, Susan and Lt. Henn explored American waters, awaiting a new Cup challenge from their Clyde-based friends and colleagues with their new G.L. Watson-designed THISTLE during the following season. They later returned to British and Mediterranean waters to continue cruising and occasionally racing in GALATEA. Susan remained aboard the yacht after Lt. Henn’s death in 1894 until her own passing in 1911. Without children, she left her estate to her cousin, the notable Scots adventurer, author, and politician Robert Bontine Cunninghame-Graham.
Susan Henn is buried in her birthplace of Rothesay, Scotland, and is honored by the America’s Cup Hall of Fame as a pioneering and inspiring figure in sailing and an important part of the America's Cup's storied history.
