Steam Yacht - Origin of The Name

Origin of The Name

The English steamboat entrepreneur George Dodd (1783–1827) used the term "steam yacht" on 16 May 1817 albeit in describing PS Thames, ex Duke of Argyle. She was one of the five passenger steamboats then under Dodd's direction, and his description was used in an effort to advertise how luxurious these vessels were-for the general public. Her service on the river had first been reported in a newspaper. At that time, she had not been formally renamed, but was still sailing under the description "Thames steam yacht".

The history of the first three private steam yachts is as follows:

1. Quentin Durward, wooden paddle steamer registered 10 June 1823 by builders Sime & Rankin, Leith,100'8" x 16'5" x 9'3", 78 tons. After being sold to R.Ogilvie & G.Crichton of Leith in 1823 and to the Leith & Dundee Steam Packet Co, Dundee in 1824, she was sold on 12 June 1827 by the English millionaire Richard Thornton,to Kaptajnløtnant Lauritz Christensen, Copenhagen, who renamed her Dania. Since he first used her on pleasure tours on the Sound, this makes her the first ever private steam yacht
2. Endeavour, wooden paddle steamer registered 28 Jan.1828 by builders Rawlinson and Lyon, Lambeth, 75’6” x 12’ x 7’2”, 25 tons with a 20 HP Maudslay patent oscillating engine with two cylinders 20in. dia. X 2 ft. stroke and registered to the eminent English engineer Henry Maudslay, London on 21 February 1828, who used her as his private steam yacht. The eminent Scottish engineer James Nasmyth mentions a trip with her to Richmond.
3. Swift, wooden sailing smack built in 1803 at Bridport by Booles & Good, not registered. Unknown owners at Leith in 1804 - documents missing. Converted to a paddle steamer, described as a steam yacht, and registered by T. West, H. Bellingham, E. H. Creasey and others of Brighton on 21 August 1822 at Shoreham-by-Sea, 106’5” x 23’1” x 10’8”, 143 tons. They ran her as a ferry boat between Brighton and Dieppe.

She was sold to G. Crichton, R. Ogilvie & others in Leith in February 1824. Crichton & Ogilvie were well-known managers. She was sold to H. Templer in London in September 1827 and finally to Turkey in October 1828 when she became the Sultan's steam yacht Surat, later taken in to the Ottoman Navy as its first steam vessel.

Thomas Assheton Smith II was excluded from the Royal Yacht Club (RYC) for his championship of the steam yacht, eight of which he commissioned between 1830 and 1851. In cooperation with the Scottish engineer Robert Napier, whose Govan, Glasgow yard built a number of them, Smith did much to improve the hull design of steam yachts. After 1856, when the Royal Yacht Squadron (the Club became Squadron in 1833) removed their edict, steam yacht building really began to multiply.

The term "Double Steam Yacht" refers to a type of mechanised fairground swing devised by the English fairground equipment engineer Frederick Savage.