Royal Yachts
Royal Yachts. By Paymaster Commander C. M. Gavin. (Rich and Cowan. £4 4s.)
THE history of the British Royal yachts was well worth writing, and the ample and extremely handsome book which Paymaster Commander C. M. Gavin has compiled shows dustrious research. The numerous illustrations, many of them in colour, are admirably reproduced. Everyone who delights in the representation of a ship moving through the water will want to return again and again to these illustra tions. What masters of combined lightness, darkness an fluidity were those seventeenth-century Dutch man painters ! Examples of both the elder and younger Van Velde are given ; Charles II never had a better bit of luck encouraging the arts than when his yachts ' Fubbs ' 'Cleveland' were painted by the younger Van de Velde. The Fubbs ' is shown as a ketch-rigged yacht and the rig of the ' Cleveland ' resembles the rig still known in the Thames Estuary as a bawley—a cutter-rigged vessel with a boornles! mainsail.
Charles II, who had a natural love for the sea, was no doubt
• fascinated by the yachts which he saw during his exile is Holland. When he returned to England he was given taco yaclits. by the Dutch and with him originated the pastime of yachting in this country. His brother, James, was scarcely less fond of yachting, and the diaries of the time tell of the brothers working the tides up and down the Thames and ' taking a hand at the steering like any modern amateur yachts. man. Charles sometimes challenged James to a race ; "but,' says the author," it was not till about 1815, when the floyal Yacht Squadron was formed, that cruising for pleasure became usual and that yacht racing was organized." The exact truth is that the Royal Yacht Squadron was organized first as kind of Reserve to the Royal Navy, and the members used to cruise in the Solent. and at Spithead in naval fashion, trying to keep their proper positions in line ahead. The records o the club tell that in those early days the members were visited with disapproval when instead of keeping their distances
• they indulged in racing, which was considered most unseemly Commander Gavin conscientiously begins his history with • a royal vessel on the Dee which belonged to King Edgar, but, virtually all the royal yachts, if so they may be called before the time of Charles II, were what we should more appro- priately call Royal barges. Victorians will feel that they are living their lives again when they turn the pages which describe the yachts 'Victoria and Albert II," Osborne and Alberta.' It was the ' Alberta, ' used generally by Queen Victoria for her short passages from the Isle of Wight to the mainland, which carried the dead Queen's body to Portsmouth in February, 1901. It is a puzzle for the Victorian to sag whether he sees these pictures of the paddle-wheel yachts
through a haze of sentiment or whether what ought on any theory of ship swchitectuTe to have been clumsy really acquired, a satisfying line. Be that is it may, Victoria and Albert II,' ' Osborne ' and 'Alberta' -present themselves in these pages with a singular charm.
The author writes at length about the Present royal yacht Victoria and Albert III.' When she was launched she proved herself unstable to the mortification of that first-rate naval architect, Sir William White, who had done wonders in his designs of fighting ships but had been a little out of his element when commanded to design a yacht. Fortunately the mis. calculation was easily rectified. Many of King George's sub- jects have guessed, and have not been contradicted, that the King never enjoys himself more than during the ten days or fortnight which he spends on board Victoria and Albert III' at Cowes Regatta. Then he sails daily in his racing yacht,
Britannia,' which has a more remarkable history than any yacht afloat. She was built in 1893. Twice King Edward sold her and twice he bought her back. Last year King George, being concerned like a true sportsman to contribute to the uniformity of the large racing class, altered the rig of Britannia ' from a gaff mainsail to the fashionable Bermuda rig. Many experts predicted that ` Britannia's ' run of successes was ended, but they were wrong—she won more races than ever. The author was allowed to photograph the whole interior of 'Victoria and Albert III,' and he writes interestingly of the routine of the yacht, which includes many old customs. Ihe spoken order, universal in ships of war, is rarely given. It is expected that everyone knows what to do without being told. "A gesture alone suffices." Discipline is of a high order. There are no punishments.
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