HMY Iolaire was an iron-hulled steam yacht that was launched in Scotland in 1881 as Iolanthe. She was renamed Mione in 1898; Iolanthe in 1900; and Amalthæa in 1907. Between 1881 and 1915 a succession of industrialists and aristocrats had owned the yacht. She was commissioned into the Royal Navy in 1915 as HMY Amalthaea, and renamed HMY Iolaire in 1918. She was wrecked in a storm at the mouth of Stornoway harbour on New Year's Day 1919. The disaster killed more than 200 people, including many of the young men of the isles of Lewis and Harris. UK law now protects her wreck as a war grave.
USS Alameda, was a United States Navy tanker in commission from 1919 to 1922. She was built as the civilian tanker SS Alameda, but transferred to the U.S. Navy after completion in 1919. She was sold for commercial service and operated under the names SS Olean and SS Sweep before she was transferred to the Navy again in World War II as USS Silver Cloud (IX-143).
SS Vyner Brooke was a Scottish-built steamship that was both the royal yacht of Sarawak and a merchant ship frequently used between Singapore and Kuching. She was named after the 3rd Rajah of Sarawak, Sir Charles Vyner Brooke. At the outbreak of war with Japan the Royal Navy requisitioned and armed her. Japanese aircraft sank her in 1942.
A steam yacht is a class of luxury or commercial yacht with primary or secondary steam propulsion in addition to the sails usually carried by yachts.
USS Carola IV, was a patrol ship of the United States Navy, built in 1885 by Culzean Shipbuilding & Engineering Company, Maidens, South Ayrshire, Scotland, as the steam yacht Black Pearl. She was built for the Earl of Pembroke & Montgomery. In 1895 the yacht was sold to E B Sheldon of Chicago, Illinois, USA. and in 1900 she was purchased by Evans R Dick of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and renamed Elsa. She was later briefly named Haida and Columbine, but by mid-1910 was owned by Leonard Richards of New York City, Commodore of the Larchmont Yacht Club.
USS Corona (SP-813) was a steel-hulled steam yacht that was launched in Scotland in 1905 as Corona. In 1917 the United States Navy had her converted into an armed yacht. She was based in France until 1918, and then in reserve in Connecticut. In 1921 she was sold back into civilian use. In 1928 she was re-registered in Peru, where she became a merchant ship. She sank off the Peruvian coast in 1941.
USS Margaret (SP-524) was a steam yacht that was built in 1913. She was a United States Navy armed yacht from 1917 until 1919, when she was transferred to the United States Department of War. She was later sold back into civilian ownership, and was still registered as a merchant vessel in 1933.
USS Wakiva II (SP-160) was a steel-hulled steam yacht that was built in Scotland for Lamon V. Harkness in 1907, and converted into an armed yacht in 1917. She was a United States Navy convoy escort from Brest, France from October 1917. That November she attacked and almost certainly sank an enemy U-boat. She was sunk in May 1918 by a collision that killed two of her crew.
USS Zara (SP-133) was a steam yacht that was built in Scotland in 1890, passed through a number of British, Canadian and US owners, and ended up as a passenger steamship in Greece after the First World War. She was renamed several times, becoming Solgar, Electra and finally Zoodohos Pigi. In the latter part of the war she spent a year as an armed yacht in the United States Navy.
The third USS Wanderer (SP-132), was an armed yacht that served in the United States Navy from 1917 to 1919.
Aphrodite was a steam yacht that was launched in 1898. When completed in 1899 she was the largest steam yacht yet built in the US. In 1917 she was commissioned into the United States Navy as the patrol vessel USS Aphrodite (SP-135). She was based in France from 1917 to 1918; in England from 1918 to 1919; and then returned to her private owner.
USS Owera (SP-167), was an armed yacht that served in the United States Navy as a patrol vessel from 1917 to 1919. The vessel, under the name O-We-Ra, was built as a steam yacht in Leith, Scotland in 1907 for Frederick H. Stevens of Buffalo, New York. In 1915 the yacht was sold to United States Senator Peter G. Gerry of Rhode Island and registered in Providence, Rhode Island as Owera.
USS Surf (SP-518) was a steam yacht that was offered to the United States Navy in 1917 but was never accepted.
SY Liberty was a steam yacht built in 1908 at Leith, Scotland, for Joseph Pulitzer and one of the largest private yachts of its day. She served as a Royal Navy hospital ship during World War I.
White Ladye was a steel-hulled steam yacht. She was launched in Scotland in 1891 as Ladye Mabel, and renamed White Ladye by 1893. By 1919 she had been converted into a steam fishing trawler, and renamed La Champagne. She was built for Francis Baring, 5th Baron Ashburton. By 1893 she belonged to the actress Lillie Langtry. From 1893 the US businessman Ogden Goelet regularly chartered her. By 1900 John Lawson Johnston, the creator of Bovril, owned her. By 1902 William Cresswell Gray, of shipbuilders William Gray & Company, owned her. By 1919 Jérome Malandain of Fécamp owned her, and was using her as a trawler. She was laid up from 1926, and scrapped in Belgium in 1935.
Amélia IV was a passenger ship built in 1900 as SS Banshee. As Amélia IV, she served as the Royal yacht for the Portuguese monarch from 1901 to 1910. From 1910 to 1937 she served the Portuguese Navy as an auxiliary ship under the name Cinco de Outubro.
Ramage & Ferguson was a Scottish shipbuilder active from 1877 to 1934, who specialised in luxury steam yachts, usually with steel hulls and timber decks. They also made several notable windjammers, including the five-masted København.
Gunilda was a steel-hulled Scottish-built steam yacht in service between her construction in 1897 and her sinking in Lake Superior in 1911. Built in 1897 in Leith, Scotland by Ramage & Ferguson for J. M. or A. R. & J. M. Sladen, and became owned by F. W. Sykes in 1898; her first and second owners were all from England. In 1901, Gunilda was chartered by a member of the New York Yacht Club, sailing across the Atlantic Ocean with a complement of 25 crewmen. In 1903, she was purchased by oil baron William L. Harkness of Cleveland, Ohio, a member of the New York Yacht Club; she ended up becoming the club's flagship. Under Harkness' ownership, Gunilda visited many parts of the world, including the Caribbean, and beginning in 1910, the Great Lakes.
HMY Conqueror II was an iron-hulled steam yacht that was launched in Scotland in 1889 as Conqueror. She belonged to Frederick William Vanderbilt from 1891, and then to William Montagu, 9th Duke of Manchester from 1911. In the First World War the Admiralty requisitioned her as an armed yacht. In 1915 she was commissioned into the Royal Navy as HMY Conqueror II. The "II" was added to avoid confusion with the dreadnought battleship HMS Conqueror. A German U-boat sank the yacht in 1916, killing 17 of her crew.
United States