Steam yacht
Encyclopedia
Yacht
A yacht is a recreational boat or ship. The term originated from the Dutch Jacht meaning "hunt". It was originally defined as a light fast sailing vessel used by the Dutch navy to pursue pirates and other transgressors around and into the shallow waters of the Low Countries...
with primary or secondary steam propulsion in addition to the sails usually carried by yachts.
Origin of the name
The English steamboat entrepreneur George Dodd (1783–1827) used the term "steam yacht" on 16 May 1817 albeit in describing PS Thames, ex Duke of Argyle. She was one of the five passenger steamboats then under Dodd's direction, and his description was used in an effort to advertise how luxurious these vessels were-for the general public. Her service on the river had first been reported in a newspaper. At that time, she had not been formally renamed, but was still sailing under the description "Thames steam yacht".The history of the first three private steam yachts is as follows:
1.Quentin Durward, wooden paddle steamer registered 10 June 1823 by builders Sime & Rankin, Leith,100'8" x 16'5" x 9'3", 78 tons. After being sold to R.Ogilvie & G.Crichton of Leith in 1823 and to the Leith & Dundee Steam Packet Co, Dundee in 1824, she was sold on 12 June 1827 by the English millionaire Richard Thornton
Richard Thornton
Richard Thornton was an English millionaire. He was born on 20 September 1776 and died on 20 June 1865 in Merton, Surrey. He is buried at West Norwood Cemetery in London. On his death, Richard Thornton left an estate of £2,800,000, which is the largest fortune to have been valued for probate in...
,to Kaptajnløtnant Lauritz Christensen, Copenhagen, who renamed her Dania. Since he first used her on pleasure tours on the Sound, this makes her the first ever private steam yacht
2.Endeavour, wooden paddle steamer registered 28 Jan.1828 by builders Rawlinson & Lyon, Lambeth, 75’6” x 12’ x 7’2”, 25 tons with a 20 HP Maudslay patent oscillating engine with two cylinders 20in. dia. X 2 ft. stroke and registered to the eminent English engineer Henry Maudslay, London on 21 February 1828, who used her as his private steam yacht. The eminent British engineer James Nasmyth mentions a trip with her to Richmond. 3.Swift, wooden sailing smack built in 1803 at Bridport by Booles & Good, not registered. Unknown owners at Leith in 1804 - documents missing. Converted to a paddle steamer, described as a steam yacht, and registered by T. West, H. Bellingham, E. H. Creasey & others of Brighton on 21 August 1822 at Shoreham, 106’5” x 23’1” x 10’8”, 143 tons. They ran her as a ferry boat Brighton-Dieppe.
She was sold to G. Crichton, R. Ogilvie & others in Leith in February 1824
. Crichton & Ogilvie were well-known managers or brokers.
She was sold to H. Templer in London in September 1827 and finally to Turkey in October 1828 when she became the Sultan's steam yacht Surat, later taken in to the Ottoman Navy
Ottoman Navy
The Ottoman Navy was established in the early 14th century. During its long existence it was involved in many conflicts; refer to list of Ottoman sieges and landings and list of Admirals in the Ottoman Empire for a brief chronology.- Pre-Ottoman:...
as its first steam vessel.
Thomas Assheton Smith II
Thomas Assheton Smith II
Thomas Assheton Smith was an English landowner and all-round sportsman who was notable for being one of the outstanding amateur cricketers of the early 19th century. He was a Tory politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1821 to 1837...
was excluded from the Royal Yacht Club (RYC) for his championship of the steam yacht, eight of which he commissioned between 1830 and 1851.
In cooperation with the Scottish engineer Robert Napier,whose yard built most of them, Smith did much to improve the hull design of steam yachts.
After 1856, when the Royal Yacht Squadron (the Club became Squadron in 1833) removed their edict, steam yacht building really began to multiply.
The term "Double Steam Yacht" refers to a type of mechanised fairground swing
Swing (seat)
A swing is a hanging seat, usually found at playgrounds for children, a circus for acrobats, or on a porch for relaxing. The seat of a swing may be suspended from chains or ropes. Once a swing is in motion it continues to oscillate like a pendulum until external interference or drag brings it to a...
devised by the English fairground
Funfair
A funfair or simply "fair" is a small to medium sized travelling show primarily composed of stalls and other amusements. Larger fairs such as the permanent fairs of cities and seaside resorts might be called a fairground, although technically this should refer to the land where a fair is...
equipment engineer Frederick Savage.
Types
Yacht
A yacht is a recreational boat or ship. The term originated from the Dutch Jacht meaning "hunt". It was originally defined as a light fast sailing vessel used by the Dutch navy to pursue pirates and other transgressors around and into the shallow waters of the Low Countries...
in the modern sense—a vessel owned privately and used for pleasure or non-commercial purposes. Steam yachts of this type came to prominence from the late 1820s to the early-20th century in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
as large developments of the long-established steam launch used on lake
Lake
A lake is a body of relatively still fresh or salt water of considerable size, localized in a basin, that is surrounded by land. Lakes are inland and not part of the ocean and therefore are distinct from lagoons, and are larger and deeper than ponds. Lakes can be contrasted with rivers or streams,...
s and river
River
A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names, including...
s. Steam yachts were commissioned by wealthy individuals and often heads of state as extravagant symbols of wealth and/or power. They were usually built with similar hull-lines to clipper ships, with an ornate bow structure and a low, smooth freeboard. Main propulsion usually came from one or two steam engines, later of compound
Compound
Compound may refer to:* Chemical compounds, combinations of two or more elements* Compound , a cluster of buildings having a shared purpose, usually inside a fence or wall...
type, or in even later, very large yachts, triple expansion or turbines
Steam turbine
A steam turbine is a mechanical device that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam, and converts it into rotary motion. Its modern manifestation was invented by Sir Charles Parsons in 1884....
. Steam yachts usually carried rigging for sails, originally as an auxiliary propulsion system, but later more for show and naval tradition. Private steam yachts were capable of long seagoing voyages, but their owners' needs and habits saw most stay near to the coast. Inland seas such as the Baltic
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
and the Mediterranean
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...
were popular areas for using steam yachts.
Statistics show that Clydeside was the premier building area for steam yachts: 43 shipbuilding yards on Clydeside built 190 steam yachts between 1830 and 1935.
Scotts Shipbuilding & Engineering Co Ltd of Greenock Scotland built 23 steam yachts between 1876 and 1904.
Those of the second class of steam yacht were built for commercial use, but gained the 'yacht' title due to their size and design similarity with the private vessels and because they were not constructed to be mainly cargo- or passenger-carrying vessels, but as versatile, low-draft
Draft (hull)
The draft of a ship's hull is the vertical distance between the waterline and the bottom of the hull , with the thickness of the hull included; in the case of not being included the draft outline would be obtained...
ships capable of working local coastal routes. This is closer to the original meaning of the word "yacht", coming from the Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
term Jacht, describing a small, fast commercial vessel. The distinction between a commercial steam yacht and a coastal trading vessel
Coastal trading vessel
Coastal trading vessels, also known as coasters, are shallow-hulled ships used for trade between locations on the same island or continent. Their shallow hulls mean that they can get through reefs where deeper-hulled sea-going ships usually cannot....
is not a clear one, but the latter term usually implies a mainly cargo-carrying ship. Steam yachts were often run by Packet Companies operating regular, timetabled services between islands or coastal towns. Steam yachts were widely used in the whaling
Whaling
Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...
trade.
The light, fast design of a steam yacht was ideal for chasing whales, and the lack of a large amount of cargo space did not matter as whaling produced few bulky products. Commercial steam yachts were rarely as ornate or luxurious as their private counterparts, with simpler, more rugged lines and usually a more practical sailing rig. Steam yachts used in the whaling trade often had reinforced hulls to allow them to operate amongst the ice of frozen waters.
The Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
used small numbers of steam yacht-type vessels from the Victorian era
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
onwards to transport men and equipment in harbour, act as coastal escorts for larger ships and for training and exercises. A good example of this was the iron p.s. Fire Queen built for the entrepreneur Thomas Assheton Smith (II)
Thomas Assheton Smith II
Thomas Assheton Smith was an English landowner and all-round sportsman who was notable for being one of the outstanding amateur cricketers of the early 19th century. He was a Tory politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1821 to 1837...
(1776–1858), (his first of three Fire Queens) by Robert Napier, Govan, Glasgow and launched on 27 July 1844, Napier Yard No 5, engine No 88. She was bought by the British Admiralty in July 1847 for £5,000 for use as a tender; there is an illustration (incorrectly captioned) of her in that role. She was sold on 4 August 1883 for £1,100 by the Admiralty to Castle the shipbreakers. Fire Queen was replaced by the Admiralty by the former Steam yacht Candace, launched on 23 September 1881 by Ramage & Ferguson, Leith, bought by the Admiralty in 1882 and then duly renamed Fire Queen.
In the First World War vessels like these and several requesitioned private yachts were used on anti-U-Boat
U-boat
U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...
patrols and for minesweeping. It became clear that the naval trawler
Naval trawler
A naval trawler is a vessel built along the lines of a fishing trawler but fitted out for naval purposes. Naval trawlers were widely used during the First and Second world wars. Fishing trawlers were particularly suited for many naval requirements because they were robust boats designed to work...
was more suited to these kinds of tasks.
Steam yachts often used the ship prefix
Ship prefix
A ship prefix is a combination of letters, usually abbreviations, used in front of the name of a civilian or naval ship.Prefixes for civilian vessels may either identify the type of propulsion, such as "SS" for steamship, or purpose, such as "RV" for research vessel. Civilian prefixes are often...
SY, but some were alternatively described as screw schooner, if they carried schooner
Schooner
A schooner is a type of sailing vessel characterized by the use of fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts with the forward mast being no taller than the rear masts....
rig. A fine example of the screw schooner is the 125 year old British Amazon
Amazon (yacht)
Amazon is a long screw schooner ex-steam yacht built in 1885 at the private Arrow Yard of Tankerville Chamberlayne in Southampton....
, built at Southampton in 1885 from designs by the renowned Dixon Kemp
Dixon Kemp
Dixon Kemp , a British naval architect, was a founder of the Yacht Racing Association and at one time its secretary. He was a founder of Lloyd's Register of Yachts....
and still going strong in the USA after crossing the Atlantic in 2009, although Diesel-propelled since 1937. She was photographed on Columbus Day 2009 on a mooring near the Herreshoff Marine Museum in Bristol,R.I.
Examples
AuroraAurora (ship)
SY Aurora was a steam yacht built by Alexander Stephen & Sons Ltd. shipbuilders in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1876, for the Dundee Seal and Whale Fishing Company. Her primary use was whaling in the northern seas, and she was built sturdily enough to withstand the heavy weather and ice that would be...
built by Alexander Stephen & Sons Ltd, Glasgow in 1876 (a former whaling-yacht turned Antarctic exploration vessel) is a notable example of the class, as are the Victorian era
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
yachts used by European monarch
Monarch
A monarch is the person who heads a monarchy. This is a form of government in which a state or polity is ruled or controlled by an individual who typically inherits the throne by birth and occasionally rules for life or until abdication...
s, such as the HMY Victoria and Albert III
HMY Victoria and Albert III
HMY Victoria and Albert III a Royal Yacht of the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom. The yacht was designed by the Chief Constructor of the Royal Navy Sir William White. She was launched in 1899 but was not ready for service until 1901...
and the SMY Hohenzollern
SMY Hohenzollern
SMY Hohenzollern was the name of several Yachts used by the German Emperors between 1878 and 1918, named after their House of Hohenzollern.- SMY Hohenzollern I :...
. One of the oldest steam yachts, and one of the few still surviving today, is the Kheideval Yacht, Mahroussa, which was built in 1865 and is maintained in seaworthy condition by the Egyptian government.