Classic yachts

El Mahrousa

(Credit: Boat international)

Always having had a penchant for old classic yachts I think about such gems like Nahlin, Haida, Talitha, Christina O, Savarona and also ss Delphine as well as the massive El Mahrousa. They are all specimens of a bygone era when yachts were yachts in their true sense and not the sleek modern multideck gin palaces. These surviving yachts also represent the hi-so of their era as well. Most of them were requisitioned by the Navies during world wars only to be returned after for restoration, they've suffered damage and fires but still there has been someone wanting to restore these beauties thus preventing them from the scrappers beach. Even back then yachting was exclusive enjoyment by the A-listers and below is a few tidbits of the well to do and even politics and royalty involved.

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El Mahrousa (built 1865), is a super yacht that serves as Egypt's presidential yacht, and previously served as the country's royal yacht. She was built by the British ship building firm Samuda Brothers in 1863 to the order of Egyptian Khedive Ismail Pasha and was handed over to its crew two years later. She managed to carry the title of the world’s biggest yacht unchallenged for over a century before eventually being surpassed by a new-build in the 1980s. She was originally built for the Ottoman governor of Egypt, Khedive Ismail, to receive visiting dignitaries, and was present at the opening ceremony of the Suez Canal in 1869. She also played a part as the Egyptian representative at the 1976 Bicentennial Fleet Review in New York harbor. Under the power of three Parsons steam turbines, she can reach a top speed of 16 knots. She has been refitted multiple times; in 1872, when her paddle wheels were removed, she was lengthened by 12.1 metres. She saw a further extension of 5.2 metres in 1905. By the end of the 20th century, however, El Mahrousa had fallen into disrepair and was relegated to serving as a museum ship. In 1992, she underwent a major refit so that she could sail to Italy for the Christopher Columbus fleet review, and she now serves as the Egyptian presidential yacht though she is seldom seen in public. She is usually berthed in Alexandria and is listed as a training ship for the Egyptian Navy.

El Mahrousa

(Credit: Yacht buyer)

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Nahlin (built 1930) was originally in private British ownership for the heiress Lady Annie Henrietta Yule, she was a British film financier and a breeder of Arabian horses. Her inherited fortune was derived from jute trade. She co-founded the British National Films Company and Hanstead Stud, and commissioned the superyachts of her day. In 1936 King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson cruised parts of the Mediterranean on her, causing the scandal that led to the abdication crisis. Later she became the Royal Yacht of King Carol II of Romania, who named her Luceafarul. After the overthrow of the monarchy, the yacht, now renamed Libertatea, served as a floating restaurant and fell into almost terminal disrepair. Luckily, she was found and returned to England by Nicholas Edmiston and William Collier in 2000. She lay in a Liverpool shipyard for four years before being sold on to a British owner. Her total restoration, under the management of G L Watson, was completed at the Blohm+Voss yard in Rendsburg, Germany, in July 2010 and today she's owned by the Dysons.

m/y Nahlin

(Credit: Wikipedia)

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Haida (built 1929) was originally made for the American industrialist Max C. Fleischmann of Santa Barbara, California, the younger son of Charles Fleischmann, founder of the eponymous yeast company of Cincinnati.The yacht was named for the Haida people, indigenous to Haida Gwaii islands, whose skills as seafarers impressed Fleischmann greatly. After this she changed hands several times, these include Loel Guinness, a member of Parliament who also financed the purchase of Calypso for Jacques Cousteau. People may remember Robert Stigwood, the famed film producer (Saturday Night Fever) and manager of music groups like the Bee Gees, he cruised frequently onboard with celebrity friends, on both sides of the Atlantic. Stigwood also commissioned the construction of a second, non-functioning funnel, which was removed years later by another owner. A subsequent name change occurred, too, in the 1980s, Rosenkavalier, under Greek ownership. The name remained under the next two owners, a Japanese family, then another Greek, that being the late Andreas Liveras, well-known in charter circles, but eventually met his demise in the Mumbai terrorist shooting in 2008.

m/y Haida

(Credit: Mega yacht news)

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Talitha (built 1930 as "Reveler") for Russell Alger, he died before she was completed in 1930, and Reveler was laid up at the Gosport, Hampshire shipyard of Camper & Nicholson. In 1931 she was bought by Charles E. F. McCann, son-in-law of the founder of Woolworths stores, Frank Winfield Woolworth for some US$375,000, and fitting-out was finally completed. Reveler was renamed Chalena, drawing on the first names of the owner and his wife, Helena, and registered in New York. The yacht was based at the Glen Cove station of the New York Yacht Club. The yacht was sold in 1939 to Leon Mandel of Mandel Brothers department store in Chicago, and renamed Carola after his wife. On 23 January 1942, Carola was acquired by the United States Navy, then classified as a patrol gunboat and designated PG-60. After conversion by the Gibbs Gas Engine Company at Jacksonville, Florida, during which her interior was gutted to make way for a complement of 110 and her clipper bow removed, she was commissioned as USS Beaumont on 22 June 1942, under the command of Lt. Comdr. John M. Cox, Jr. On 20 February 1947 Beaumont was transferred to the United States Maritime Commission for disposal and she renewed her connection with the F W Woolworth Company, as she was purchased by Norman B Woolworth, whose father, Frederick Woolworth, had established the British branch, F W Woolworth & Company Ltd. The yacht was renamed Elpetal, taken from the names of three of Woolworth's close friends, Eliot Fox, Peter Walton and Talbot Malcolm. In 1957 Elpetal was sold to the Greek shipowner Maris Embiricos, without change of name. He owned her through Concordia Navigation Company, which registered her at Monrovia, Liberia. In the 1970s, following the death of his wife, Embiricos laid up the yacht at his family island of Petaloi, where she subsequently deteriorated. The Australian-British music entrepreneur and film producer Robert Stigwood purchased the yacht in August 1983, sending her to Malta for a refit lasting eight months, which included restoration of her clipper bow. She reappeared as Jezebel in 1984 and cruised widely. Later, the yacht was again laid up, in Lisbon, after developing mechanical problems, and was sold in 1993 to John Paul Getty Jr., who renamed her Talitha G in memory of his second wife. The yacht received a three-year refit in 1991–1994, under supervision of Jon Bannenberg at Devonport Management Limited, after which she was measured as 1,103 GT, with a length of 82.6 m (271 ft). Since John Paul Getty Jr.'s death in 2008 the yacht, with the name modified to Talitha, has been owned by his son, Mark Getty.

m/y Talitha

(Credit: Wikipedia)

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Christina (converted 1953) started originally as a Canadian anti-submarine River-class frigate HMCS Stormont, launched in 1943. The Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, once the wealthiest man on earth, purchased Stormont after the end of World War II as naval surplus, at a scrap value and converted the vessel into a luxury yacht. The first postwar superyacht was named her after his daughter. Christina set a new standard for lavish personal yachts, especially amidst the austerity of post-war Europe. Apart from his mistress Maria Callas and his wife Jackie Kennedy Onassis, Aristotle Onassis entertained celebrities such as Umberto Agnelli, Giovanni Battista Meneghini (Callas' husband until 1959 when she left him for Onassis), Richard Burton, Clementine Churchill, Diana Churchill, Winston Churchill, Jacqueline de Ribes, John F. Kennedy, Greta Garbo, Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, Grace Kelly, Anthony Montague Browne, Rudolf Nureyev, Begum Om Habibeh Aga Khan, J. Paul Getty, Eva Perón, Françoise Sagan, Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor, and John Wayne. In 1956 the wedding of Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, and Grace Kelly held its reception on Christina. After Aristotle Onassis died in 1975 fate led the yacht to be laid up until 1998 when the Greek shipping magnate John Paul Papanicolaou bought her and restored (or basically rebuilt) her between 1999-2001 and renamed her Christina O. Today she's owned by an Irish businessman Ivor Fitzpatrick. 

HMCS Stormont

(Credit: Wikipedia)

m/v Christina O

(Credit: Wikipedia)

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Savarona (built 1931) and named for an African swan living in the Indian Ocean, the ship was designed by Gibbs & Cox for American heiress and socialite Emily Roebling Cadwalader, granddaughter of John A. Roebling, engineer of the Brooklyn Bridge and involvement in the steel industry. In 1933, the ship was used as a film set while on the North Sea off the German coast. It appeared prominently in the German science-fiction film Gold, starring Hans Albers and Brigitte Helm. The movie premiered in 1934. In 1938, the Turkish government acquired the yacht and gifted it to ailing leader Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who spent only six weeks aboard before dying a few months later. After that she was renamed Gunes Dil and used as a naval training ship until she was decommissioned by a major fire at the Turkish Naval Academy in 1979. She lay damaged and virtually abandoned until 1989, when the yacht was leased by Turkish businessperson Kahraman Sadıkoğlu who rebuilt her and used her as a charter yacht until 2013 following a scandal which led to the Turkish Gov't rescinding the bareboat charter. Today she's still in use by the Turkish Gov't as a presidential yacht.

m/y Savarona

(Credit: Wikipedia)

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Delphine (built 1921) was originally for the SS Delphine is a yacht commissioned by Horace Dodge, co-founder of Dodge Brothers. The yacht was launched on 2 April 1921 Captained by Arthur A. Archer. Delphine caught fire and sank in New York in 1926, only to be recovered and restored. She suffered further damage in 1940 when she ran aground in the Great Lakes, and was repaired. She was acquired by the United States Navy in January 1942 and rechristened USS Dauntless (PG-61), to serve as the flagship for Admiral Ernest King, Commander in Chief of the U.S. Fleet and Chief of Naval Operations. She was sold back to Anna Dodge (Horace Dodge's wife) after the conclusion of World War II and restored to civilian standards and service, including her original name. Purportedly, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt used the yacht and the Yalta accords were drafted while he was on board. Delphine was sold in 1967 and again in 1968, changing names again to Dauntless, only to be sold again in 1986, 1989, and in 1997 – at scrap metal prices to her next owner, Jacques Bruynooghe, who restored her for $60 million to the original 1921 condition including interior decor and the original steam engines. She was rechristened Delphine by Princess Stéphanie of Monaco on 10 September 2003. In 2007, the ship was used as part of the setting for the Rian Johnson film The Brothers Bloom.

s/s Delphine

Credit: Yacht Club de Monaco (LinkedIn)

Delphine in magazines: Boat International and Bateaux

Specifications:
Name(s): 

1921 Delphine

1942 USS Dauntless (PG-61)

1946 SS Delphine

1967 SS Dauntless

1989 SS Delphine

Builder: Great Lakes Engineering Works
Cost $2 million (building cost in 1921)
Launched: 2 April 1921
IMO number: 8971815

General characteristics
Tonnage: 1961 (gross)
Length: 257.8 ft (78.6 m)
Beam: 35.5 ft (10.8 m)
Draft: 14.6 ft (4.5 m)
Installed power: Steam
Propulsion: Propeller
Speed 12 kn (22 km/h; 14 mph) max
Capacity: 26 passengers
Crew: 24-30

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Out of all above I have seen them all except Al Mahrousa, they are always a joy for the eye with the old classic lines gracing the seas. Some years ago I was even onboard Christina O for a job interview and got a full tour of her, but it came out to nothing, probably best for both of us. Lately seen Nahlin in Tarragona as she was berthed there for the winter maintenance. Savarona I saw in Istanbul about 10 years ago on our way to the Black Sea. Talitha I've seen in the MB92 shipyard in Barcelona and Haida I spotted some years ago mooring in Antibes. 

I recall seeing Delphine as early as 20 years ago when she was a staple sight in Monaco and I think I was offered employment for very low remuneration back in the day. Since then she disappeared at some point from sight and I heard the rumor mill telling that she had been laid up in Tunisia, true or not, I don't know but I recall seeing her back on the riviera one spring and personally saw that she was in a bit of a state. Past years I've heard that she'd been put under arrest in Marseille for unpaid docking bills, no cash, no splash is the term...

At least in the making of this post I have added El Mahrousa to my bucket list of things to see...

Below are my own pics of those that I've clocked:

Christina O off Mykonos 

Christina O off Mykonos

Delphine off Beaulieau sur mer

Delphine off the riviera

Haida arriving Antibes

Nahlin in Tarragona