The times., 1899-01-08
VICToRIA's NEW YACHT.
May be Christened in Honor of
Prince Albert.

Queen Victoria may soon enjoy the
pleasure of a cruise on her new yacht, the
largest ever built The new royal yacht,
the name for which has not yet been
definitely chosen, but which probably will
be called the Prince Albert, is now so far
advanced that it is expected she will be
launched next March.
The first Keel plate was laid December
90, 1897. at the government dockyard at
Pembroke by Mrs. Watson. the wife of
Capt. Burgess Watson, the superintendent
Of the dockyard with elaborate ceremony.
The British government has a remark
| ably well developed faculty of keeping its
| business to itself. The gates of the gov
| ernment dockyards rarely open, even to
| British citizens, and almost never 10 for
| eigners. Consequently, although all Eng
| lishmen in general and yachtsmen ard
| naval architects in particular have been
| burning with curiosity to know wnat
| Queen Victoria's new yacht viii be like
ever since parliament appropriated money
| to build her. Nothing is known about her
except the meager details the admiralty
| has seen fit to give out. No eyes have
seen her except the officers and workmen
who have business in the dockyard-
English curiosity became so clamorous
a short time ago that the admiralty de
maintaining absolute secrecy about the
royal yacht so far as to give out some of
the principal dimensions of the vessel.
The new yacht is to be $50 feet in length
by 30 feet beam. Her draught is TO be
Is feet and her displacement is to be
$500 tons. This will be by far the biggest
yacht ever built. William K. Vanderbilt S
yacht Valiant, which has passed muster
for pretty good sized yacht. is small by
I -s.k, -f,H-
pleasure craft The Valiant is only 332
feet long, 80 feet beam and 16 feet draught.
Her gross tonnage is 1923. Howard Gould S
Niagara is still smaller. being 272 feet in
length, 81 feet beam and i6 feet draught.
The new royal yacht is as large as the
cruiser Baltimore, larger than the New
Orleans and much larger than the German
emperors yacht HohenzOllern. The Hohen-
zollern is nothing more than protected
cruiser, armament, protective deck and all.
with quarters fitted up for the emperor
The British royal yacht. on the other hand,
will have none of the qualities of cruiser,
but will be yacht pure and simple.
The hull is to be of steel. sheathed with
wood and covered with copper. She will
be provided with double bottoms. She will
have three tunnels and two masts.
Speed is to be an important considera-
| tion. The admiralty has deigned to in
form British taxpayers that the yacht is
to have two sets Of ple-eXpansion, four
cylinder engines, driving twin screws and
having an indicated horse power of II 600.
The high pressure cylinder OF each engine
is to be &c 1-2 inches in diameter. the in
| termediate cylinder A IL inches in diam
eter. and the t wo low-pressure cylin-
ders So inches in diameter, all having a
stroke of 80 inches Steam will be sup
piled by eighteen Belleville boilers, work
| ing at pressure of 800 pounds. which will
be reduced at the engines to 25G pounds.
| The crate area under the boilers will BE-
| $40 feet and in the heating surface will be
| &c 600 square feet. This machinery is ex-
J pected to drive the vessel through the wa
| ter at a speed of twenty knots an hour with
the engines making 40 revolutions a min
ute.