The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1906-05-17
ENGLAND'S ROYAL YACHT.
THE VICTORIA AND ALBERT
SIX MILLION DOLLbRS

Po,UVVJVuuis OIlS NdS ddullCIeu Ill May,
1899, with the present Princess of
Wales as sponsor.
She is 4S9 feet long. Her engines are
of 11,000 horsepower and she has a
speed of about twenty miles an hour,
Her coal supply will carry her from
England to the Riviera.
The fittings and decorations are
quietly rich and sumptuous. Even on
the upper deck, says Harpers Bazaar,
solid silver is used for the deck fittings
All the apartments are panelled in
enanlelled white, while the necessary
warmth of color is obtained in the
furniture, carpets and draperies. In
the Kings private stateroom the car
pet is a rich blue, which well matches
the blue morocco of the chairs. All the
furniture here is of grained mahogany,
slightly inlaid with other woods.
AS to the Kings bedroom, it is sew
erely simple, with it's swinging bed
stead of silver plate, without draperies;
| its satinwood furniture, silver plated
metal work and specially woven car
| pet.
The Queens bedroom is much larger
than the Kings. 1t is model Of
grace and beauty with its white panell-
ing and stately canopied bed suspend
ed from the ceiling. The furniture is Of
dainty grained satinwood with silver
fittings.
The color scheme is a soft green. The
coverlet of the bed has an elaborate
monogram surmounted, by a crown.
Queen Alexandra's dressing room is a
large apartment with a bath of jasper
and dressing tables of inlaid satlnwood
with front and side mirrors, in addition
to an enormous cheval glass forming
a movable panel in the wall
Opposite the royal sleeping apart
ments Is the drawing room. The
walls are, of course, panelled in white;
! the furniture is of hand painted satin
wood, and the hangings of blue silk.
In one corner Is a pedestal writing
table, flanked by two small seni-cir-
cular tables; and opposite the big yet
/ homelike fireplace is grand piano,
Bookcases and lounge seats make the
drawing room delightful retreat in
rough weather.
The state dining room IS an apart
ment of noble dimensions, occupying
one-third Of the vessels length and
lighted by no fewer than twenty-six
windows and two large skyllghts.
From floor to ceiling it is panelled in
white, accented with a plaster treat
ment of great beauty and delicacy.
! Covers can be laid here for thirty
guests. The smoking room is close by.
The grand staircase leads from the
reception room up to the state deck,
most of which is occupied by the roy
al apartments, including a private din
ing ROOM An electric elevator assu-
ages the trials of seasck royalties.
There is also well appointed hos
pital and dispensary down below, where
a titled physician presldes over the
| health of the King and Queen.
The yacht is commanded by a Rear
Admiral and he has crew of $50 men,
The officers are selected from the best
in the navy.
| Although the Victoria and Albert is a
commissioned ship, she never fires a
salute, not even in reply to the guns of
foreign warships. If she is at anchor,
the guardshlp of the port answers for
her. If at sea her cruiser escort re-
plies.
! The present royal yacht is not the
first Victoria and Albert that has
flown the royal standard. Her earliest
predescessor was an insignificant pad
die wheel auxiliary yacht, with big
spread of canvas to help her engines
to poor twelve knots. She was
| broken up in 1868, but in 1856 was
superseded by the late Queens Victoria
and Albert, to which Queen Victoria
was almost fanatically attached.
Here again was huge paddle wheel
yacht, quantity honeycombed with
cabins, staterooms, boudoirs and the
like to accommodate the extensive
family and aged retainers of the old
Queen. For when Queen Victoria
went to sea she usually took her en-
tire family with her, so that the big
craft became a kind of floating nursery
The decorations were extremely ole
fashioned, the walls of chintz being
covered with long lines of pink flowers
on a white ckground-exactly the
pattern one comes across to-day in re.
mote English farmhouses off the beat.
en- track of the railroad, far from mo-
dern innovations.
Yet on no account would the late
Queen permit alterations either struc.
tural or decorative, and to the last the
old v. and A., as it was called, remain.
ed exactly as it was in the days of the
Prince Consort.
During the last few years of Queer
Victoria's life her grown up family ant
their relatives were constantly com.
planning of the inconvenient accommo.
dation on the royal yacht and a
length the Queen reluctantly consented
to the building of the present vessel
Nevertheless, Queen Victoria never 81
much as went on board, for all hei
affections were centred on the old fash.
toned yacht-which, by the way, wa:
finally broken up in the Portsmouth
dockyard last year.