[ad name=”intheboatshed-post”]
Hermann Goering’s yacht Carin II
Read all about Hermann Goering’s splendid yacht, the Carin II at Wallyworld. It seems she survived the war virtually unscathed, and was requisitioned as a spoil of war by Field Marshal Montgomery who passed it on to our Royal Family who used it for their holidays for 15 years.
From this distance in time is seems to have been an rather unusual kind of Royal Yacht, but perhaps things seemed rather different 60-odd years ago.
The story of Carin II became even stranger – for she was later owned for a time by the journalist at the centre of the fake Hitler diaries scandal.
Don’t miss out – please subscribe to our new improved alerts! Click the window or profile link below.
Hmm, isn't there some dispute about this particular 'Goering's yacht' re her provenance? I seem to remember seeing pix of something bigger, or at least a different deckhouse. I know he had a sailing yacht, maybe he had several?
jeff
When you were inside, was there a bar made of wood?
From the translated reportage at the Wallyworld site there seems little doubt the boat belonged to Goering or that it was used by the Windsors for holiday making.
Whether it actually could be called a Royal Yacht may be less obvious but if it was renamed first Prince Albert and then Prince Charles, the connection seems strong.
But who knows? In the end most of us are just repeating stuff we've read elsewhere,
And speaking of the things we read – there's a lot more material on the Wallyworld site now, and it's clear the old boat has a tremendous story to tell, even since the Hitler diary forger Heidmann had her.
Gav
i have been on board carin or prince charles as i knew her she was a proper rn ship attached to thr rhine sq 1945 to 1958 used by the royal family as a holiday retreat she was looked after by the royal marine detachment that made up the sq about 300 strong with LCTs LCMs LCAs 12 ex german navy launches 1 submerine depot ship and a large tug the base at kreafelt was HMS ROYAL PRINCE we were there to transport the tanks and trucks accross the rine if the russians took out the bridges carin had a gold plated bath and was very well fitted she was returned to gorings daughter in 1960
Hi Dave,
I'd love to here more about your time on Carin II. What was her job as part of the RN Rhine Flotilla? Was she used for VIP receptions and stuff? Was she used by the SBS as part of their preparations for a Soviet Invasion?
Best wishes
Dr G H Bennett (h1bennett@plymouth.ac.uk)
Reader in History,
University of Plymouth
This may count as ‘a bit late to the party’, but I know UK-SIS used at least one ‘Schnelleboot’ to insert/extract agents and materiel…
The Karin 2, captain Mohamad (Egyptian American), wife and crew were arrested in Libyan waters in the 1980’s. The crew and Captains wife were deported. The Captain and yacht spent some months in the port of Ez- Zueitina (Occidental of Libya inc oil terminal) where the British expats did what they could to help Mohamad by way of food tea, coffee etc. the Yacht and Captain were eventually released.
I knew this boat in Rhodes 1974-83. it was called Meteor and belonged to an ex ww2 Raaf pilot Derek something or other,
I still want to know if there was a bar
Hi Shirley,
I the salon there was a full length cabinet running fore and aft on the starboard side. The front of the cabinet was made up of four or five burl veneered doors, behind some of the doors were drawers, elsewhere simply shelves.
16 June 2025
It is a long time ago that you were asking about the bar on Goering’s yacht, and you may by now have lost interest in it. However, having this evening by chance come across your correspondence, I can tell you about the bar on the yacht because, believe it or not, my sister and I (aged 10 and 12) used to sleep in it while on holiday (in 1954) It was a very small narrow room and quite a squash for us sleeping in it! And it was said to be Goering’s ‘library’. But all the shelves had round holes in them, obviously designed to hold bottles rather than books, which amused us! Is there anything else you would like to know?