ROYAL YACHTS
Two royal yachts, in port-quarter view, side-by-side. On the left, and ketch-rigged may be the Fubbs of 1682 and the fastest of Charles II’s Royal Yachts. The other, smack-rigged, is possibly the Katherine, built for the King in 1660 to replace the Mary. The yacht to the left is firing a salute and a number of men can be seen on the decks of both vessels. Numerous other ships are visible in the background to the right.
A PAIR OF ROYAL YACHTS by L de Man, painted c1707-1720 L de Man was a Dutch artist who worked in England over the period
1707-20, arriving at about the time of the death of van de Velde the Younger. He worked for some of the time at or near Deptford on the Thames, where nearly all the ships that he portrayed were based. He was a competent and accurate recorder of yachts and shipping familiar in the lower reaches of the Thames in the early 18th century.
appointed to be fitted with a very roomy cabin and all other accommodations for that purpose; the keel of which ship was laid in the launching place at the old dock at Chatham the last day of June, being in length 72ft, in breadth 24ft, and to draw 11ft water, of the burden 250 tons and tonnage.” Despite Prince Henry’s untimely death in 1612, the pinnace was completed as the 20-gun Phoenix and eventually sold in 1624.
Above: Believed to be the Disdain, built 1604 for Henry, Prince of Wales; the detail is from a painting by Adam Willaerts in the NMM Greenwich
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DUTCH YACHTS Prince Henry’s nephews Charles, Prince of Wales – afterwards King Charles II – and James, Duke of York – later King James II – caught the sailing bug when they spent time in the Scilly Isles and Channel Islands following Royalist setbacks in the Civil War, and during their years of exile continued to hone their skills as helmsmen on the Dutch inland waterways, where yachting had become a popular sport. The Dutch jachts (yachts) of that time had evolved into fine-looking craft
CLASSIC BOAT FEBRUARY 2012
decorated with carvings, gilding and paintwork. They usually possessed good seakeeping qualities, a swift turn of speed and luxurious accommodation. When the monarchy was restored in 1660, King Charles II began his journey home from exile in a Dutch yacht that had once belonged to his brother-in-law, the Prince of Orange. On reaching Rotterdam, the King remarked that he would have a similar vessel built on his return to London, which led to the presentation of a 100-ton yacht by the Burgomaster of Amsterdam, Van Vlooswyck, in August 1660. She was named Mary in honour of the King’s sister and became the first of the 26 Royal Yachts that he was to use during his reign. This fleet included the coasting smack Surprise, in which he had escaped following his defeat by Cromwell’s forces in 1651. He tracked down the smack after the Restoration and purchased her from Captain Tattersall. She was renamed Royal Escape, converted into a yacht and moored on the Thames by Whitehall Palace.
NATIONAL MARITIME MUSEUM, GREENWICH
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