Steam yacht

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ They vary in size from 20 to 45 ft. in length, with speed from 6 to 10 miles an hour; in a measure they have displaced small steam launches as tenders for yachts, and in many places where no great degree of skill is required to run them; in fact, the ease of running and little time required to start a launch are the chief reasons of their popularity, in spite of the fact that they are noisy and malodorous.
The use of the steam yacht will, without doubt, continue to increase more rapidly than the sailing craft, but there is not the least probability that the latter will be superseded. ”

“ With her two funnels, her straight stern and modified turtle-deck stern, she is a “whole-hogger” as compared with the compromise which the Sagitta represents. In the Triad the steam yacht breaks right away from accepted conditions and shows the first real approach to the contemporary ocean-going steamship.279 To some extent, no doubt, she exhibits some resemblance to the well-known German Imperial steam yacht, the Hohenzollern, but she is rather a deep-sea liner in miniature, capable of going anywhere, and performing practically any service which could be asked of her. ”

“ When we go into the question of steam yachts, no better advice can be given than that contained above, so far 173as hull and equipment are concerned. It is different when the proper care of machinery is considered. There it is where the services of a loyal and skillful engineer come into full play. Unless sufficient attention is paid to a vessel's boilers and engines during the critical time when she reposes in dock, disastrous results, entailing vast expenditure, are sure to follow. The complicated and ingenious mechanism which propels the modern steam yacht requires devoted regard. ”

“ The steam-yacht has doubtless a thousand comforts for the owner above the sailing-yacht, but we, whose interest in them is an outside and æsthetic one, cannot help saying, "O Utility, what crimes are committed in thy name!"
There is no beauty, but a deal of attraction, in the great flotillas of linked barges and canal-boats which slowly pass like floating and vulgar Venices. If, as is often the case, they lie across the track, we shall have plenty of opportunity to observe at our leisure their still life. ”

“ With the capabilities of which the motor has shown itself to be possessed, the future of the steam yacht is perhaps a little uncertain. Economy would seem to indicate that the former has numerous merits in that it enables sail power to be utilised more readily, and thus may arrest the fashion which is advancing in the direction of steam. For long passages the extreme comfort which is now obtainable in the modern liner leaves no choice in the matter. To keep up a steam yacht for the usual summer season of four months is a very serious item of expenditure. ”

“ The fact that you leave port with a certainty of getting to your destination on time, barring accidents, makes somewhat monotonous an event that otherwise containing a large element of chance induces a corresponding degree of excitement. There is probably no pastime so tiresome to an active man as steam yachting, especially if it be in familiar waters. A steam yacht is a lazy man's palace and an active man's prison. Except when there is a race or a difficult bit of navigation, I would as soon run a trolley car as a power boat. ”

“ In about the year 1884 a club was formed for steam-yacht owners only, called the American Yacht Club, and for several years it offered prizes to be run for in Long Island Sound; but steam-yacht racing did not become popular, principally because of the danger of forcing machinery to its utmost limit of safety, and also the difficulty of classifying yachts of different size and power of engine. ”

“ 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. ”

“ During the ’eighties the number of English steam yachts multiplied in all parts of the Kingdom owing to several causes. The improvements which had been going on, as well in the making of marine engines as in yacht building and designing, were assisted by the more economical consumption270 of coal which was now possible. But the sport of steam-yachting is entirely, by reason of its nature and its costliness, confined to the rich man. ”

“ We pass now to another type of steamship, which is endowed with as much distinctive character as the steam tug. The steam trawler may not be as smart as a steam yacht nor as fast as a torpedo destroyer; yet, for all that, she is able to encounter as bad weather and—size for size—is perhaps a good deal better sea-boat. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It must be admitted that comfort and pleasure can be, and doubtless are, found on many steam yachts; for instance, a yacht of 125 ft. water-line, by 19 ft. beam, with a well-kept flush-deck, a comfortable deck-house forward, a large awning spread over all, the deck set out with Persian rugs, tables, and comfortable rattan chairs, and a number of congenial friends present, who are not tired of life and each other—I think no one will deny that pleasure in the highest degree could be realised with such surroundings. ”

“ Though the fashion of the hour has set strongly towards steam-propelled vessels, the beautiful white canvas, and the easy motion when under sail, will long retain their fascination for all pleasure voyaging. It is pleasant to be free from the thud of engines, the smell of oil, and the horrors of the inevitable coaling. Owners who have no love for sailing, and to whom a yacht is essentially a means of conveyance from port to port and a floating home, do well to go for steam. ”

“ There is a yacht club in San Francisco with a large membership and a goodly number of yachts, but most of their sailing is done inside. The scarcity of coal, and consequent large cost, seems to hinder the introduction of steam yachts, but a large number of naphtha launches are used with evident satisfaction.
South of Point Conception the conditions are far more favourable for yachting than in the north; but the want of good harbours, well distributed, will always serve as a block to the sport. ”

“ But this is not all; a new sport has been born—the racing of small yachts, for which the Thames is peculiarly unsuited. Steam yachting has caused this development of small yacht racing. Men who would otherwise have built or purchased large sailing yachts now prefer steam, and, although they may themselves race but little in any craft, their action has destroyed our fleet of large sailing yachts, and with it the market for outclassed racers of any considerable size. ”

“ Although the racing of steam yachts as a recognized sport has not made the progress that was at one time expected, yet the owner and crew of a crack vessel will take as much interest in her performance as those belonging to a sailing yacht, and hate to be passed quite as badly. ”

“ For when there is any wind at all a sailing cutter can land anywhere where it is safe to take a steam launch, and with a little practice it is as easy to take her alongside a ship's ladder as a six-oared gig. And when a yacht is on a cruise, moving daily from port to port, a sailing cutter takes considerably less time to get ready than a steam launch. Anywhere on the coast she can generally be carried in the davits with her mast stepped and rigged, so that there is nothing to do but to lower the ballast into her and loose the sails, and she is ready to start. ”

“ They had exhausted the possibilities at the Yacht Club anchorage, so the lawyer proposed a trip to St. George, Staten Island, off which several yachts, that their owners wished to dispose of, were anchored. There Dick found three which would have suited him, but Mr. Blake advised him not to commit himself, but to look further before deciding.
"We'll go over to Brooklyn," proposed the lawyer. "We may as well put in the entire day, for buying a steam yacht is not to be disposed of too lightly." ”

“ For a long time the steam yacht naturally enough retained most of the features of the sailing yacht. I say naturally, not merely because steam was still distrusted, and, therefore, canvas was retained, but because beauty of form and symmetry are demanded more in the steam yacht than in the steamship designed for commercial purposes. For the creators of steam yachts were rather yacht-architects than steamship-designers. We have only to quote the admirable work of such men as St. ”

“ Naturally, however, by far the greater number of steam-yacht owners have their homes on or very near some navigable water, upon which they pursue their favourite sport as a pastime only, or in connection with the daily engagements of business life. ”

“ Now more than half the tonnage of the Club is in steamers. I think it is a pity, and they are such steamers too! 800 tons, 1,000 tons, 1,500 tons. I do not see where they are to stop; but, I believe that in this, as in most things, we have run into excess. I cannot believe that the largest steam yacht afloat, with all the luxury and cost that upholsterers and cabinet-makers can devise, will ever give a man who is fond of the sea and seafaring matters a tithe of the gratification that a 100-ton sailing vessel will afford ”

“ They used to make one of the heartiest pleasures of{198} yachting; but nowadays where is the foeman worthy of the steel of the slashing yawls, and cutters, and schooners? Nearly everything that floats goes by steam, and for a yacht to race a steamer would be as sensible as to make up a Derby of locomotives and thoroughbreds. Yet those crank racers, with their enormous spread of cloths—though they be things of beauty—are certainly not a joy to everybody. ”

“ There is far less variety of form and rig among steam yachts than in any other pleasure craft. The accepted form at present is a flush-deck vessel with pole masts, triple-expansion engine, and some modification of the old Belville boiler, a form that has many varieties, none of which are satisfactory in more than a few points. They are generally safe from explosion, but very short-lived, and difficult to manage. ”

“ Many men of large means and wide business interests who may be seen daily on Wall Street or in other centres of trade in New York have homes on the head waters of Long Island Sound, or on the lower stretches of the Hudson, whence they daily run to the city of New York in a steam yacht, which, after landing its luxurious owner, waits until his day is done in (p. 283) the city, and bears him again to a home of comfort and quiet retreat.
Yachts used chiefly for such purposes are always fast ”

“ It is true that the cabin of the older form is pleasanter, being lighter and more airy, but the strength of construction gained by the flush deck, its broad expanse of deck everywhere available for sitting and promenading, all these points of advantage give the present form decidedly the first place in the estimation of all lovers of steam yachting. Since 1880, steam yachting has increased with prodigious rapidity, and, particularly since the introduction of naphtha as a factor in motive power, our waters fairly swarm with craft propelled by a machine. ”

“ From the truck to the keel the Rob Roy had been thoroughly refreshed and beautified. The perfection of a yacht’s beauty is that nothing should be there for only beauty’s sake. In the strict observance of this rule the English certainly do excel every other nation; and whether you take a huge steam-engine, a yacht, or a four-in-hand drag, it is certainly acknowledged by the best connoisseurs of each, that ornament will not make a bad article good, while it is likely to make a good one look bad. ”

“ With regard to the designing and construction of steam yachts, it seems to be the aim of every designer and builder to try his hand at this branch of naval architecture, and, as might naturally be expected, the resultant vessel is too often an example of semi-successful work of the novice, clumsy in form, construction, and machinery, rude in design and ill fitted to its duty. Nearly all the deep-sea pleasure craft are built on the Delaware, and as a rule are staunch, seaworthy vessels with good speed, and generally satisfactory performance in all situations. ”