m/y Amazon
As I was taking some stores in Hythe the manager took me around the shed for a looksee and I saw this old beauty in for some TLC, an old classic named m/y Amazon. I had a walk around her admiring the old hull and her fittings still all intact. Obviously she had her masts missing being inside the shed but I guess they can only be stepped up once she gets out of the shed. Apparently she has been on the chocks for past 5 years so maybe this summer is the right one?
As usual, I had a snoop around the interwebs and got some info on her, she has some impressive pedigree. Originally she was designed by Dixon Kemp and built at the Arrow Yard in Southampton in 1885 for Tankerville Chamberlayne, an English gentleman. The Arrow yard was Mr Chamberlayne's private yacht yard, which had been created in the 1840s by his father Thomas Chamberlayne, who died in 1876 to maintain the family's racing cutter, the famous s/y Arrow. He needed the Amazon to follow the Arrow to various regattas as his base.
m/y Amazon in Gloucester
credit: Roger Smith on Flickr
Amazon was in 1897 sold to France, renamed "Armoricain" and then in 1900 she was sold back to UK and her original name was restored. According further information she had originally a steam engine fitted that came from neighboring yard Day, Summers & Co., she was later converted to diesel propulsion in 1937. I also read that her deck and hull is still largely original, which would be very impressive considering her age but I think she must've been refitted several times by now as the hull is wooden. Even if made of pitchpine and Douglas fir I doubt there is one toothpick left from 1885 or perhaps the timber is so resin rich that it has petrified.
m/y Amazon GA
credit: nationalhistoricships.co.uk
She mostly cruised in UK for the first part of her operational life until the 1st WW when she was conscripted by the Admiralty to use by the Royal Navy. During 2nd WW her bronze propeller and shaft was donated to the war effort after which she was used as a houseboat in London where she luckily was missed by a V-1 rocket attack in the Chiswick, Cubitt's yacht basin. She changed hands again in 1968 to the actor Arthur Lowe and was refitted for sea in 1971 and she followed around the British coast wherever the actor was working, she also appeared as Amazon on the TV series Onedin line.
m/y Amazon, 2013 in Malta
credit: Phil English via shipspotting.com
As Mr Lowe passed in 1982 his son put her on a career as a charter yacht up until the late 1990's when she had been laid up in Scotland. In 1997 she was sold and had a small refit and then ventured all the way to the Mediterranean and visited Malta for another refit. Then later on in 2000's she sailed to the Americas. In 2009 she cruised to the Canaries and Cape Verde islands, then through the Caribbean and US East Coast. Having visited ports on the US East coast she went further up the coast to Newfoundland, Canada from where she returned to Ireland in 2011. In 2012 she seems having had a very busy year as she visited St. Malo, France and the British Channel islands as well as the South Coast of England. The detailed history stops in 2013 and as of 2015 I can read that she is now in private hands and is used operationally for long-term cruising with a base in the Channel Islands but maybe that changed 5 years ago when she was put on the chocks in Southampton.
Beam 4.8m
Draft: 2.8m
Length Overall: 31m
Gross Tonnage: 58
Air Draft 17m
N.B. She should not be confused for Winston Churchill's Amazone (allegedly) that was recovered from the banks of the Seine in Paris to Pendennis. Churchill was at the time First Sealord of the Admiralty and the boat was the property of the treasury so he probably used it for public relations back then. She's also an old classic built in 1936 by Thornycroft in Southampton that ended up as a dilapidated houseboat. She was also used in the big evacuation operation during WW2 from Dunkerque to England, records shows she did 3 roundtrips. Now she's waiting in Falmouth for a client with deep pockets to restore her. It would suit someone with a penchant for a gentlemans yacht. The article from 2024 says great care is taken for the Interior refit but I think they mean the 2005 one. From what I've seen the hull is completely gutted and nothing remains of her interior and the restoration is far from being even started.
I hope both ladies will hit the water again one day with proud owners.
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