The Royal Thoroughbred

Aline’s successor became one of the best-known yachts of all time and clearly demonstrated the positive impact of Royal patronage by triggering a revival in the sport of yachting on two separate occasions. The first occurred in the wake of the dismal 1892 season, when the Big Class was represented by just two unevenly matched yachts. Many predicted the imminent demise of the class until The Prince of Wales and the Earl of Dunraven announced their intention to build two new racing yachts. The Earl planned to contest the America’s Cup with his Valkyrie II while the Royal Racing Yacht would provide some credible opposition in home waters before Valkyrie II’s transatlantic crossing. Others swiftly followed suite with Mr A D Clarke ordering Satanita from Fay & Co, Peter Donaldson giving the Clyde based J & A Inglis the go-ahead for the construction of Calluna and the American yachtsman Phelps Carroll announcing that his new yacht Navanhoe would cross the Atlantic to compete in Cowes Week, thus setting the scene for a memorable season that was bound to reinvigorate the sport of yachting as a whole.

Like the Earl of Dunraven, the Prince of Wales turned to the leading naval architect of the Victorian era, George Lennox Watson, to draft Britannia’s lines. His Royal Highness summoned the Scottish designer to his Sandringham estate to discuss the details at length. The subsequent drawings were approved by The Prince in the New Year, thus enabling work to commence on the Royal Racing Yacht at David and William Henderson’s yard in Partick, Glasgow, on the banks of the River Clyde. For the craftsmen assigned to Britannia, it became a labour of love as she took shape alongside Valkyrie II. Her composite construction consisted of steel frames covered by pitch pine and American elm planking with cedar-wood topsides.

On 20 April 1893, Britannia was launched by Mrs Henderson. Once her 3-ton Oregon mast had been stepped and rigged, Britannia was finally ready to make her racing debut. Although Britannia is now regarded as one of the most beautiful yachts of all time, contemporary opinion was not so kind. The Field’s Yachting Editor Dixon Kemp wrote, “The feature in the new cutters which made the most impression was undoubtedly the ‘finish-off’ forward. The general impression appeared to be that it was ‘gratuitously ugly’. And yet the form of the stem or cutwater is a matter of taste… and the uneducated eye of the rising generation, untrammelled by comparisons, will grow to love the Viking stem just as past generations did the swan stem.” The controversial shape of the bow was a direct consequence of Watson’s desire to challenge the generally accepted convention that racing yachts should plough through the waves rather than skim over them. To achieve his objective, Watson adopted a shallow U-shaped pram form which provided enough buoyancy up forward to enable Britannia to skim over the waves, thereby marking a radical departure from the pronounced V-shaped wedge-sectioned bow of the older yachts.

As completed, the 121ft Britannia was powered by a gaff rig that could boast a maximum sail area of 10,327sqft and propel her to speeds of at least 12 knots. The base length of her sail plan from the tip of her bow sprit to the outboard end of the boom was 172ft, while its height was 142ft above the deck. In contrast to the subsequent generation of stripped-out racing yachts, Britannia could comfortably accommodate her owner and crew. The interior layout included four sleeping cabins, a spacious saloon, galley, pantry, a bathroom complete with a full-size bath, and a 20ft long forecastle for the majority of her crew with 13 folding cots and space for 4 hammocks. The fittings were of polished yellow pine and mahogany throughout, with tapestries and cretonnes above the polished wood dado.

Racing a yacht like Britannia was a major undertaking. In her early years, Britannia sailed between regattas under trysail canvas. In the 1895 season, it was estimated that she sailed 6500 miles, of which 4500 miles consisted of passages between events. The main season would consist of approximately 40 races held between the end of May and late August. The action would begin on the Thames estuary before the fleet moved on to Harwich, Dover, the Welsh Coast, the Firth of Clyde, Belfast, Falmouth and up the English Channel to the Solent for Cowes Week. For the final round of regattas, the fleet would proceed from Cowes to Bournemouth, Weymouth Bay, Plymouth Sound, Torbay and Dartmouth. An average yacht race for the Big Class was 40 miles and took about 5 hours to complete. The crew would begin their preparations at 0600. As the time for departure approached, it would take 30 men at least an hour to set up her gaff rig. Discipline was always strict on board Britannia. While racing, no one could speak except to give, repeat or pass on an order. Unless they were adjusting a halyard or sheet, every member of the crew had to lie prone on the weather deck and keep their heads below the rail.

To achieve Britannia’s full potential on the regatta circuit, the Prince of Wales appointed William Jameson as her sailing-master and the professional yachtsman John Carter as her first Captain. Together, they became a formidable double act. John Carter would be at Britannia’s tiller while William Jameson would dictate the strategy. Under the appreciative gaze of The Prince of Wales, they began their partnership on the River Thames with victory in Britannia’s first race on 25 May 1893. However, the Prince soon discovered that spectating was not entirely risk-free, as Mr Ratsey later recorded, “His Royal Highness was sitting just abaft the companionway in a deck-chair reading the morning papers, Britannia manoeuvring about for the start. I could not take my eyes away from the Prince, as owing to the heeling of the yacht from side to side, his chair was constantly on the balance, and he looked as if he might roll over the side, chair and all, at any moment. At last,t the Britannia heeled over still more, to a decidedly dangerous extent, indeed. Fortunately, His Royal Highness realised the danger, grasped the companion, and stood up just as the chair and all the papers rolled over the side into the river; and in a very few seconds were a considerable distance astern. The Prince was asked if the chair etc should be picked up, to which he replied, ‘Yes, pick up the papers.’ Britannia was gybed over, the dinghy launched, chair and papers retrieved, and the latter sent down into the forecastle to be dried. I have often wondered how many of the crew would have jumped to the rescue had His Royal Highness gone overboard with the chair. It would have been amusing to see half the crew over the side and only a dinghy to rescue the lot.”

By the end of her initial season of competition, Britannia had achieved considerable success by winning 24 of the 43 races she entered. Britannia’s second season began early with a passage across the Bay of Biscay, round the Rock of Gibraltar and into the Mediterranean to enter the increasingly popular series of races that were held along the French Riviera. In contrast to his attendance at UK events, The Prince of Wales did not rely on the support of the Royal Yacht Osborne during Britannia’s tour of the Côte d’Azur. Instead, he lived on board Britannia while competing in the regattas hosted by Cannes, Monaco, Menton and Nice. On conclusion of the final event in Nice, His Royal Highness would depart, and Britannia’s racing sails would be stowed for the homeward passage under trysail in time for the start of the British season.

Britannia’s success quickly captured the public’s imagination and turned her into the “leading lady” of the Big Class. As a locally designed and built yacht, she attracted some of the biggest crowds whenever she raced on the Clyde. In July 1894, her duel with the American yacht Vigilant, which had defeated Valkyrie II in the previous year’s America’s Cup, attracted considerable interest. Crowds lined the banks of the Clyde from Kirn to Dunoon and from Gourock to the Cloch Lighthouse, while a fleet of passenger boats with their bunting, brass bands and yet more spectators shadowed the competing yachts.

Sadly, the regatta circuit took on a more sinister tone when the German Emperor Wilhelm II decided to use it as a method of generating interest among his people in maritime affairs so that he could gradually build their enthusiasm for his costly expansion of the Navy. In August 1895, he commissioned George Watson to design Meteor II along the same lines as Britannia, albeit on a larger scale. Meteor II’s success, coupled with the Kaiser’s antagonistic attitude towards his Uncle, tested The Prince of Wales’s patience to its limits, as he once explained to Baron Von Eckhardstein, “the regatta [Cowes] used to be a pleasant relaxation for me; since the Kaiser takes command it is a vexation.” Ironically, Britannia concluded her first racing career by winning the German Emperor’s Shield outright in her final race at the 1897 Cowes Week. Shortly afterwards, Britannia was towed up the Medina River and put up for sale, having won 122 of the 219 races that she had entered since her debut in 1893.

According to a popular myth, Ernest Hooley agreed to buy Britannia until he realised she did not have a funnel! However, the records maintained by the firm G.L. Watson and Co show a different story in which Britannia was sold to John Lawson Johnston of Kingswood on 16 December 1897. Within 5 months,s she had been bought by Martin Ruck,er who in turn sold her to Daniel Cooper on 20 July 1898. Despite the frequent change of owners, none of them used Britannia, so she remained in Cowes until The Prince of Wales repurchased her in May 1899 to act as a trial horse against Sir Thomas Lipton’s challenger for the America’s Cup, Shamrock I. Her brief return to racing proved to be unsuccessful,l and she was sold to Sir Richard Williams-Bulkeley in October 1900. In contrast to the previous private owners, Sir Richard actually used Britannia as a cruising yacht and reduced the size of her rig accordingly. As he prepared to attend Cowes Week for the first time with Britannia, Sir Richard was asked by her former owner, who had by then succeeded his mother Queen Victoria on the Throne as King Edward VII, if he could charter her for Cowes Week. Within a year, His Majesty had purchased Britannia for the third time and he continued to use her as a cruising yacht until his death in 1910 when she was inherited by his son King George V. Summing up King Edward’s feelings towards Britannia, his former Equerry-in-Waiting, Captain The Hon Sir Seymour Fortescue later wrote, “He loved his yacht, not only because she could win races, but because she was his home for the time being and because he delighted in the freedom of the sea, the salt breeze, and the beauty of the scene around him.”