The Royal Yacht “Victoria and Albert.”
Photo. G. West & Son.
The Imperial Yacht “Hohenzollern.”
In the days when the Papal States were a power in the land and his Holiness was not a voluntary prisoner in the Vatican, the then occupant of St. Peter’s chair was the possessor of a very fine armed screw steam-yacht, the Immacolata Concezione. She was built by the Thames Iron Works and Shipbuilding Company, with engines by Messrs. J. Seaward and Co. of Millwall. She carried eight brass 18-pounder guns, and was a three-masted full-rigged ship of some 627 tons burden. The engines were of 160 nominal horse-power and 300 indicated, and were capable of giving her a speed of 13 knots an hour.
Among other famous iron vessels which were either specially built or employed as Royal yachts in the middle of the last century may be mentioned the Jerome Napoleon, constructed by M. A. Normand at Havre for the late Prince Napoleon, afterwards Emperor of the French; the Peterhoff, built by Messrs. Ditchburn and Mare at Blackwall in 1850 for the late Emperor Nicholas of Russia, which was wrecked on her outward voyage to the Baltic; the Falken, built at Deptford in 1858 by Messrs. C. Langley for the late King Frederick VII. of Denmark. She was an iron schooner-rigged vessel 127 feet in length, and could steam at 10 knots an hour. The Miramar was a favourite yacht with the late Empress of Austria. The Russian Imperial Yacht Livadia was circular and shallow, and is the only large turbot-shaped yacht afloat. These yachts, however, have been gradually superseded by vessels of a thoroughly modern type. As a case in point, the Princess Alice, owned by H.S.H. the Prince of Monaco, and constructed by Messrs. R. and H. Green at Blackwall in 1891, is built of steel frames with teak planking, her bottom being covered with copper sheeting. Thus in her general finish she is one of the finest specimens of marine architecture on the composite principle which ever took the water. Unlike most Royal yachts, she is used not merely for pleasure but also for scientific research, for the Prince of Monaco is well known for his contributions to the scientific knowledge of ocean depths and all that pertains thereto. The expeditions which he has organised, and most of which he has conducted in person, are invariably made on this yacht, which is splendidly equipped for the purpose. In order that she may be able to cover a large radius of action, she is fitted with an unusual coal capacity and can store in her bunkers sufficient to carry her 3700 miles. Under steam alone she can make 9 knots an hour, and with steam and sail combined she has been known to attain to nearly 12 knots an hour.
The Safa-el-bahr, designed and constructed in 1894 by Messrs. A. and J. Inglis of Glasgow for his Highness the Khedive of Egypt, is also a steel-built two-decked yacht. She is schooner-rigged, and is fitted with three-stage expansion engines with cylinders 18 inches, 29 inches, and 48 inches in diameter, giving a piston stroke of 36 inches. These are supplied with steam at a pressure of 160 lb. from two boilers having a heating surface of 2300 square feet, and give an indicated horse-power of 1200, with a speed of 14·1 knots per hour. Her tonnage under yacht measurement is 677 tons. She has a length of 221 feet, breadth 27·1 feet, depth 17·3, with a draught of 12 feet.
As private yacht-owning is a pastime in which only the wealthy can indulge, and as almost all private yachts are built to suit the fancy of their owner, a considerable individuality is displayed by them. They range in size from vessels not bigger than a ship’s boat to ocean-going liners. The Winchester, the latest boat of her class yet devised, is a triple-screw turbine yacht, bearing a strong resemblance to a torpedo boat. Her dimensions are: length 165 feet, breadth 15³⁄₄ feet, depth 9³⁄₄ feet, and displacement 180 tons. She was built in 1909 for Mr. W. P. Rouss, a prominent member of the New York Yacht Club, by Messrs. Yarrow and Co. of Scotstoun. The propelling machinery consists of three Parsons marine steam turbines constructed by Messrs. Yarrow. She has two Yarrow water-tube boilers, and her furnaces are fitted to burn oil fuel. The hull is of steel. At her trials at Skelmorlie she easily maintained a speed of 26³⁄₄ knots, which was ³⁄₄ of a knot in excess of the speed stipulated in her building contract; and it was believed that a much higher rate could have been achieved, as 250 lb., the full working pressure of her boilers, was not reached, the high pressure of her high-power turbine being only 160 lb.
The Iolanda, of about 2000 tons yacht measurement, was built for an American owner in 1908, and was then stated to be the second largest privately owned yacht in the world. She was both constructed and engined by Messrs. Ramage and Ferguson, Ltd., Leith. Her length over all is about 305 feet; beam 37 feet 6 inches; depth 23 feet. Her twin-screw machinery is of the triple-expansion four-crank type of 3000 to 4000 indicated horse-power. Her boilers are partly cylindrical marine return tubular and partly water-tube. This combination, the first installed in any yacht, affords the advantage of being able to raise steam and get under way at practically a moment’s notice, or provides additional speed at short notice when required, while the bunker capacity of some 550 tons gives the yacht a very extensive ocean-steaming radius. She is provided with motor and steam launches, quick-firing guns, electric-lighting apparatus, which is accredited as being the largest ever installed in a private yacht, and includes arrangements for manipulating the Marconi wireless telegraphy.
Among eccentricities of design in steamboats may be mentioned cigar ships, vessels shaped like birds, early submarines, double-hulled boats, and numerous other extravagances. One of the earliest submarines was contrived by a Dutchman named Hollar, about 1653, but whether this wonderful vessel ever got beyond the imaginative or paper stage is unknown. There is a picture of it in the British Museum. This singular craft was to be 72 feet in length, 12 feet high, and 8 feet beam, with a wheel in the centre where it “hath its motion.” The description says it was built at Rotterdam. The inventor undertook in one day to destroy 100 ships. “It can go from London to Rotterdam and back in one day, and in six days can go to the East Indies, and can also run as fast as bird can fly.” “No fire, no storm, no bullets can harm her unless it please God.” There is no further trace of her.