The steam yacht, has, however, found out the advantages of the turbine, and the first to be fitted thus was the Emerald, built on the Clyde in 1902 for Sir Christopher Furness. She has a Thames measurement of 797, and is propelled by three separate propellers, with their individual shafts actuated by three sets of turbine machinery. Her speed is about 16 knots on an exceptionally low coal consumption, and she showed her ability by crossing the Atlantic in the year following her birth. The recent adaptation of the Parsons turbine for moderate speeds, already discussed, will doubtless pave the way for a much more general adoption of this form of propulsion in the yacht. Otherwise speed in the steam yacht is a doubtful advantage, for with reciprocating engines there is demanded a greater amount of space which could be better used for extra cabin room. Water-ballast and bilge-keels are used to a large extent, and steel has long since proved its worth for the making of the hull as well as many other features of the ship. Now that the engines of a steam yacht have proved themselves to possess that reliability which was for a long time not conceded, the need for sails, except for steadying the ship, or, as already mentioned, for long ocean voyages, has disappeared. It is much more common to see a steam yacht given the rig as seen in [the illustration on page 275], with stay-sails and try-sails, than the yards and gaff-sails of yesterday. Indeed, one might go so far as to assert that the retention of the two masts is based on appearance more than with a view to utility.
A STEAM YACHT TO-DAY.
By permission of “The Yachting Monthly.”
THE RUSSIAN IMPERIAL YACHT “LIVADIA.”
From the Model in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
One of the most extraordinary steam yachts ever built was the Livadia, of which a capital model is illustrated [opposite page 276]. She was built in 1880 by Messrs. John Elder & Co. for the Russian Admiralty. Her unusual design was based on the idea of a circular floating battery invented by John Elder in the ’sixties, and reintroduced by Admiral Popoff ten years later. From a technical paper read some years ago by her builder, we gather that she was constructed in accordance with Admiral Popoff’s designs to give 14 knots per hour. In case of her failing to come up to the required standard, the Russian Admiralty were to be allowed to reject her. Previous to her actual building, elaborate experiments took place with a model, and both before and after the appearance of the ship she was subject to considerable criticism, some of which, no doubt, was owing to the radical departure from accepted custom. Her builder described her as being turbot-shaped with a super-structure which contained the Imperial apartments and the accommodation for suite and crew. After her trials, she sailed from the Clyde to Brest in fine weather. Thence she crossed the Bay of Biscay, and the bad weather which had sprung up increased to a gale of exceptional violence, which also afforded the most conclusive test for her steadiness. It was found that she was wonderfully endowed with the latter virtue, and that although she had been designed for service on the Black Sea, she was able to take the seas of the Bay in a most satisfactory manner. The height of the waves was adjudged by the experts on board as being from twenty to twenty-five feet, but the receding formation of the turbot had the effect of dividing the wave against itself. In no case did the waves succeed in reaching the keels of the ship’s boats hung in davits 22 feet above the load-line, and although the table was loaded with candelabra and other easily capsizable articles, the ship never lurched so as to send them moving. It is true that when she put into Ferrol, owing to the exhaustion of the crew, two of the thirty-seven cells on the external rim of the turbot were damaged, yet this did not vitiate the general principle of her construction. She was driven by three propellers and three independent engines, and was easily handled. During the gale she only required one man at the wheel. She displaced nearly 4,000 tons, measured 235 feet in length, 153 feet in extreme width, and drew only 6½ feet.
Perhaps the one conspicuous example where the steam yacht has been designed not by a yacht architect is in the case of the steam yachts possessed by the Royalty of this land, and it is a matter of regret that some of the worst and most old-fashioned traditions should be perpetuated in what one would have expected to have been the most up-to-date and efficient steam craft afloat. There has ever been displayed in the royal steam yachts far more of the Admiralty influence of yesterday than of the modern factors at work in yacht-design. Grace and delicacy have been avoided for a kind of clumsy impressiveness, and the worst features of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries naval architecture are retained with a surprising obstinacy. The heavy quarters and counter, the tasteless display of external carving and gold leaf have had to make a pretence of affording what should have come spontaneously from the beauty of the vessel’s own lines. The Victoria and Albert, launched a few years ago, is especially expressive of the defects which she ought never to have exhibited. And the latest English royal yacht which was launched in 1907, has but little character that is superior to her predecessor. This Alexandra will be seen at her trials in [the illustration facing page 278]. True, the heavy quarters have been very much modified, but in any assemblage of steam yachts or modern ocean-going steamships, she stands out less owing to her inherent beauty, than for the impression of solidity which she conveys. The Alexandra has a registered tonnage of 2,157, and is driven by three turbines.
