[ad name=”intheboatshed-post”]
Racing sailing yacht White Heather I
Ermine, Meteor II
No doubt the photo of my Mouseboat in the last post offended a huge number of readers – there seems to have been a clear dip in the readership figures. So to make hurried amends for my terrible crime, here are some more of Jeff Cole’s wonderful photos from The Yachtsman. Thanks yet again Jeff!
The photo of White Heather I appeared in the summer of 1907, and was taken by West & Son of Southsea.
The 36-footer Ermin is in a supplement to issue no 350, which came out in December 1897, and the photo is by Captain Henry Owen.
Jeff points out that there is a sailing ship with boom extended on the port side, adding that it’s probably a private yacht or charter.
The shot of Kaiser Wilhelm’s Royal Yacht Meteor II was printed in a supplement to Yachting World in September 1901 and was photographed by Maclure Macdonald & Co of Glasgow. I had to pause here to remember those who fell in the war starting in 1914; if only he’d stuck to racing the UK’s Royals instead of trying to defeat them on the battlefield. When you think of the convivial dinners they must all have enjoyed during the late Victorian and Edwardian eras, you have to wonder. Even after all these years and with my grandpa long gone, the thought of how so many men were lost, injured and driven mad in the trenches of Flanders over what must have been a kind of family feud still has the power to make me furious.
There are a couple of books at Amazon that look very interesting in relation to this topic. The first is Down Below: Aboard the World’s Classic Yachts (Hardcover); the second is The Golden Century: Classic Motor Yachts, 1830-1930 (Hardcover). Take a look – the first seems to be about life on board as a crewman, and the other is about a subject that seems to me to be rather neglected.
For more old photos from The Yachtsman and elsewhere:
More photos from The Yachtsman – including a legendary actress and mistress to Royalty
Grand yacht photos from The Yachtsman of more 100 years ago
