Yampa (yacht)

Yampa
The Yampa in 1893
Yacht club  New York Yacht Club
Nation  United States
Designer(s) Archibald Cary Smith
Builder Harlan & Hollingsworth
Owner(s) Chester W. Chapin, Richard Suydam Palmer, Kaiser Wilhelm II
Specifications
Length 135 ft (41 m)
Beam 27 ft (8.2 m)
Draft 13.8 ft (4.2 m)

The Yampa was an American ocean-going cruising schooner yacht for pleasure use. The yacht was originally built for Chester W. Chapin, a rail baron and U.S. Congressman from Massachusetts. It completed several ocean cruises with no accidents. It passed through several hands and ultimately was purchased by Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany as a birthday present for his wife. He had another larger yacht built based on the design of the Yampa, which was named the Meteor III.

History

The yacht Yampa was originally designed by naval architect Archibald Cary Smith for Chester W. Chapin,[1] and the steel-keeled schooner was constructed in 1887 by the firm Harlan and Hollingsworth in Wilmington, Delaware.[2] She was considered the best in her class until 1891.[3] The Yampa was 135 feet overall, 110 feet at the water line, and her draft was 13.8 feet. She had a registered tonnage of 162 tons net and 170 gross,[3] with a beam of 27 feet.[4] She participated in various events related to the America's Cup.[5][6][7][8]

American banker James Hood Wright used Yampa for pleasure cruising in the summer of 1894.[9] Chapin sold her that November to Richard Suydam Palmer who had memberships in various yacht clubs, and he refitted her in December 1894.[10] Yampa sailed for Gibraltar on January 18, 1895, and from there she went to Tunis and Algiers in Africa. She then sailed to Malta and other ports in the Mediterranean Sea. She made many ocean cruises for several years with no significant accidents, and sailors referred to this as sea-kindliness.[11] In February 1896, Palmer traveled with the Yampa for three months to the West Indies, calling at Bermuda, Barbados, Trinidad, St. Thomas, and Nassau.[12][13] In March, Cuthbert S. Thompson committed suicide in Bermuda aboard the yacht while Palmer's guest on the West Indies trip.[14][15][16]

Palmer took her to Southampton in England in 1897 on the occasion of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee.[17] From there, he went through the North Sea and was towed to Kiel, Germany by way of the Kiel Canal. There the yacht anchored close to the German Emperor's yacht SMY Hohenzollern. The emperor was very much attracted to the schooner and wished to own it.[2][18] Palmer had left his business card on the SMY Hohenzollern and was informed that the emperor talked all day about how he liked the American vessel.[18][11] He immediately took steps to acquire her for himself,[19] and he bought the yacht from Palmer in December 1897.[2][11][20] The schooner was a birthday present for his wife Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein.[21] The ship went to Southampton to be refitted to the emperor's luxurious specifications.[4] The German Royal family enjoyed many cruises on the Yampa which carried the Empress's flag; she was renamed Iduna and participated in several European regattas.[2][22] In 1898, she competed in the international Emperor’s Cup regatta.[23] That same year, she was outfitted to race against the schooner Rainbow.[24]

The emperor had another yacht built based on the design of the Yampa,[22][25] using Smith as the naval architect, and he had the yacht constructed in America instead of Germany.[11][26][27] The new vessel Meteor III was an enlarged and improved version of Yampa,[18][22][28] and was the end result of a sequence of previous vessels designed and built by Smith.[29] Meteor III was built in New York harbor in 1902,[30][31] and christened by Alice Roosevelt Longworth, the daughter of President Theodore Roosevelt.[32][33][34]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "The Yacht Tampa [sic]: Mr. Chapin's Steel Schooner Receiving the Finishing Touches". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn, New York. December 18, 1887. p. 16 – via Newspapers.com .
  2. 1 2 3 4 Outing 1898, p. 508.
  3. 1 2 "A Famous Schooner". Akron Daily Democrat. Akron, Ohio. August 24, 1895. p. 3. Archived from the original on February 3, 2018 – via Newspapers.com .
  4. 1 2 McCormick 1898, p. 38.
  5. ↑ "Amphitrite Winner". The Evening World, page 3. New York, New York. August 14, 1895 – via Newspapers.com .
  6. ↑ "Getting in Line". Democrat and Chronicle, page 1. Rochester, New York. August 15, 1895 – via Newspapers.com .
  7. ↑ "History of the Cup". The Morning Astorian, page 4. Astoria, Oregon. September 8, 1895 – via Newspapers.com .
  8. ↑ "Great Racers to Cross the Atlantic". Evening Bulletin, page 9. Honolulu, Hawaii. March 25, 1905 – via Newspapers.com .
  9. ↑ "A Famous Schooner". Akron Daily Democrat, page 3. Akron, Ohio. August 24, 1895 – via Newspapers.com .
  10. ↑ "Orders American Yacht". Arkansas Democrat. Little Rock, Arkansas. June 24, 1901. p. 5 – via Newspapers.com .
  11. 1 2 3 4 Kenealy 1902, p. 128.
  12. ↑ "Yacht Yampa Arrives". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn, New York. May 6, 1896. p. 1. Archived from the original on February 5, 2018 – via Newspapers.com .
  13. ↑ "Yachts and their owners". New York Tribune. May 7, 1896 – via Newspapers.com .
  14. ↑ "Suicide of Johnson in Bermuda". Chicago Tribune. Chicago, Illinois. February 22, 1896 – via Newspapers.com .
  15. ↑ "General News Summary". The Marion County News. Hamilton, Alabama. March 5, 1896 – via Newspapers.com .
  16. ↑ "SAD CRUISE OF YACHT YAMPA.; Cuthbert S. Thompson Shoots Himself in a Fit of Insanity" (PDF). The New York Times. New York, New York. February 22, 1896 – via Newspapers.com .
  17. ↑ "Yachting Notes". The Sun. New York City. July 26, 1897 – via Newspapers.com .
  18. 1 2 3 Leslie 1901, p. 540.
  19. ↑ "Downey Describes Yacht". New-York Tribune. New York, New York. February 26, 1902. p. 11. Archived from the original on February 3, 2018 – via Newspapers.com .
  20. ↑ "No new yacht for the Kaiser.; The Yampa Rechristened and Transferred to the German Flag". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. March 5, 1898. p. 3 – via Newspapers.com .
  21. ↑ Koesling 2012, p. 32.
  22. 1 2 3 SA 1902, p. 141.
  23. ↑ "Yachting: The Emperor's Cup". Country Life Illustrated. 2. July 17, 1897. pp. 39–40. Retrieved February 4, 2018.
  24. ↑ "FOREIGN RACING SCHOONERS.; The American Yacht Yampa Will Be Fitted to Race Against the New Schooner Rainbow". The New York Times. January 27, 1898 – via Newspapers.com .
  25. ↑ Stephens 1902, p. 121.
  26. ↑ "Meteor III". Quad-City Times, page 1. Davenport, Iowa. February 26, 1902 – via Newspapers.com .
  27. ↑ "Picture of the Meteor". The Sabetha Republican-Herald, page 6. Sabetha, Kansas. March 6, 1902 – via Newspapers.com .
  28. ↑ White 1902, p. 568.
  29. ↑ "The Meteor's Evolution". The Indianapolis Journal. Indianapolis, Indiana. February 2, 1902 – via Newspapers.com .
  30. ↑ Seitz & Miller 2011, p. 319.
  31. ↑ "Kaiser's American-Built Boat". The Jennings Daily Times-Record, page 3. Jennings, Louisiana. March 10, 1902 – via Newspapers.com .
  32. ↑ Hallock 1902, p. 194.
  33. ↑ Navy and Army 1905, p. 234.
  34. ↑ Thompson 1907, p. 435.

Sources

  • Hallock, Charles (March 8, 1902). Greman Emperor's New Schooner. Forest and Stream. Forest and Stream Publishing Company.
  • Kenealy, A.J. (1902). Sleicher, John Albert, ed. Kaiser William's New Yacht. Leslie's. F. Leslie.
  • Koesling, Theo-Peter (April 2012). Amphitrite (in German). Bremen: BoD – Books on Demand. ISBN 978-3-95427-067-5.
  • Leslie, Frank (1901). An Imperial American Yacht. The American Magazine. 53. Frank Leslie Publishing House. p. 540. ... the Emperor desired an American ...
  • McCormick, L. M. (1898). Emperor William's American Yacht. The Illustrated American. Illustrated American Publishing Company.
  • Navy and Army (May 20, 1905). Under the Burgee. Navy and Army Illustrated.
  • Outing (1898). Yachting. Outing. Outing Publishing Company. The German Emperor saw the American schooner Yampa last summer in the Baltic, and fell in love with her. The result was that he purchased her from Mr. R. S. Palmer"
  • SA (March 1, 1902). The Emperor's Yacht – Meteor III. Scientific American. 86. Scientific American, Incorporated. “Meteor III.,” which was designed by Cary Smith & Barbey, of New York, is an improved and enlarged “Yampa”—the latter, a very successful schooner that was designed by Mr. Smith and spent a great deal of her time in European waters. The “Yampa” eventually passed into the hands of the German Emperor, and under the name of “Iduna” has figured largely in the foreign regattas. The Emperor was so well pleased with the “Iduna” that last fall he placed an order with these architects for the construction of a larger and faster yacht, which should embody the best features of the “Yampa"
  • Seitz, Sharon; Miller, Stuart (2011). "Prall's Island, Shooter's Island, and Isle of Meadow". Other Islands of New York City: A History and Guide. Countryman Press. p. 319. ISBN 978-1-5815-7886-7.
  • Stephens, W.P. (1902). Bigelow, Poultney, ed. "The Yachting Outlook". Outing. Outing Publishing Company. The noble schooner yacht, Meteor III, just launched at Shooters' Island, in Newark Bay, is the legitimate outcome of a practical study of the American schooner, begun by Mr. Smith in Prospero as long ago as 1877. She is largely a bigger and finer edition of the ocean cruiser Yampa, designed by him in 1887, and now owned by the Emperor under the name of Iduna.
  • Thompson, Winfield M. (1907). "Royal Yachts and Yachtsmen". In Day, Thomas Fleming. The Rudder, Volume XVIII. New York: The Rudder Publishing Company. p. 435.
  • White, Trumbull (1902). The German Emperor's American Yacht. Our Wonderful Progress. Trumbull White.
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