About four years ago the ice-breaking and surveying steamer Lady Grey was launched by Messrs. Vickers, Sons, and Maxim at Barrow-in-Furness for the Canadian Government, and performed some exceedingly effective work, particularly in the St. Lawrence River or in duties associated with the Marine and Fisheries Board. A larger and faster vessel being required, the builders were asked to provide a steamer which, while preserving all the qualities of an ice-breaker, should yet be able to attain a speed of seventeen knots, and be capable of use for a variety of purposes. The Earl Grey was launched in June 1909, and besides fulfilling these requirements has been engaged in the passenger traffic across the Northumberland Straits. She has been fitted with special quarters, enabling her to be employed as an official yacht by the Governor-General. Provided with a cut-water or schooner stem with a short bowsprit, an elliptical stern, and two steel pole schooner-rigged masts, which rake considerably, and having been designed with a graceful sheer, she has more of the appearance of a large yacht than an ice-breaker intended to be able to make her passages in all sorts of weather and under widely varying conditions. The hull is built with extraordinary strength; the frames are very closely spaced in order to take up the thrust of the pack ice which in winter may sometimes be piled round the vessel; the shell plating is of unusual thickness, and the outer skin is double right fore and aft along the water-line and to the bottom of the keel in the fore body, where the friction of the ice tends in the case of ice-breaking steamers to wear away the material. The ordinary practice of this and all other ice-breakers, in whatever part of the world, is to utilise their weight to break the ice by rising upon it and crushing it. In order to possess as great a weight as possible, large tanks are built into the fore part of the Earl Grey which can be filled or emptied at a rate of 250 tons an hour. The vessel is also equipped for breaking ice when going astern, the counter having been suitably strengthened to resist the shocks; while to secure the rudder from injury it has been built into the form of the ship so that her movements are not impeded by the ice-floes. The Earl Grey is 250 feet in length, 47 feet 6 inches beam, 17 feet 7 inches depth, and 3400 tons displacement. She has accommodation for fifty first-class passengers and twenty in the second class, and under these circumstances winter ice-breaking excursions may yet become the vogue among those in search of a new sensation.
The “Ermack.”
The “Earl Grey.”
The introduction of steam-propelled vessels was objected to by sailing-yacht owners, but the advantages of auxiliary power in yachts intended for cruising overcame all opposition, and in the course of a few years the number of yachts of all rigs, even cutters, fitted with auxiliary power, steadily increased. Machine-driven yachts are intended as cruisers. A few steam-yachts had paddle-wheels, the latter being specially favoured for all vessels intended for Government or for Royal use, where sea-going qualities were required. One of the most notable of this type was the Victoria and Albert, built to the order of her Majesty the late Queen Victoria, which was, at the time of her launch, one of the finest yachts afloat. Among the earliest of the Royal yachts was the screw steamer Fairy, which was built for the late Queen in 1845 at the Thames Iron Works, Shipbuilding and Engineering Company’s yard at Blackwall, then owned by Messrs. Ditchburn and Mare. This was the first iron vessel owned by the British Government. Her dimensions were: length 144·8 feet, breadth 21 feet 1¹⁄₂ inches, draught 6 feet, displacement 210 tons, horse-power 416, and speed 13·21 knots.
It is only fitting that the finest Royal yachts afloat intended purely for pleasure purposes should be at the disposal of the monarch of the leading maritime nation, and the latest Royal yachts built for the late King Edward merit this description. They are the present Victoria and Albert and the Alexandra, the latter built in 1908. Other modern Royal yachts of note are the German Emperor’s Hohenzollern, which is heavily armed and can be utilised as a fast cruiser if necessary, and the Russian Pole Star and Standart.
Amongst the celebrated Royal yachts of the past belonging to foreign rulers are the iron paddle-steamer Faid Gihaad, built in 1852 by Messrs. Ditchburn and Mare for Said Pasha, the then Khedive of Egypt. She was a flush-decked barquentine, 285 feet in length between perpendiculars, 318 feet over all, with a breadth of beam of 40 feet and a tonnage of 2200. Her engines were of 800 horse-power and were built by Messrs. Maudslay and Field. She was equipped as a war vessel and carried an armament of two 84-pounder pivot guns, twelve 32-pounder broadside guns on the upper deck, and fourteen 32-pounders on the main deck. Like everything else that the Pasha indulged in, the Faid Gihaad illustrated his taste for luxury. Externally the vessel was painted white from the water-line, below which she was copper-coloured. The stern was ornamented with a gold scroll, and each paddle-box had a crescent and star in gold. Three years before the building of the Faid Gihaad there was constructed at Alexandria, by order of Said Pasha, a steam-frigate called the Sharkie, which was sent to this country to be fitted with steam-engines and a screw propeller. She was 220 feet in length, was rigged as a second-class frigate, and had engines of 550 horse-power by Miller and Ravenhill. These were capable of driving her nearly 11 knots an hour. Her armament consisted of 36 guns of heavy calibre. The furniture and panelling of the cabins were richly inlaid with ivory and mother-of-pearl, which may have admirably suited the taste of Said Pasha in these matters, but can hardly have conduced to the efficiency of the vessel as a fighting machine.
Photo. G. West & Son.