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Yampa (yacht)

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The Yampa was an American ocean-going cruising schooner yacht for pleasure use from 1887 to 1899. 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.

Yampa
The Yampa in 1893
Yacht club New York Yacht Club
Nation United States
Designer(s)Archibald Cary Smith
BuilderHarlan & Hollingsworth
Owner(s)Chester W. Chapin, Richard Suydam Palmer, Kaiser Wilhelm II
Specifications
Length135 ft (41 m)
Beam27 ft (8.2 m)
Draft13.8 ft (4.2 m)

History

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The Yampa was a yacht 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, four years after Chapin died.[2] She was considered the best in her class until 1891.[3] The Yampa was 135 ft (41 m) overall, 110 ft (34 m) at the water line, and her draft was 13.8 ft (4.2 m). She had a registered tonnage of 162 tons net and 170 gross,[3] with a beam of 27 ft (8.2 m).[4] She participated in various events related to the America's Cup, a trophy award for best in a match race between two sailing yachts of different countries.[5][6][7][8]

American banker James Hood Wright used the 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] The 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 several ocean cruises from 1894 through 1895 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, stopping at Bermuda, Barbados, Trinidad, St. Thomas, and Nassau.[12][13] Cuthbert S. Thompson, who was a cousin of Palmer, committed suicide in Bermuda aboard the yacht while Palmer's guest in March 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 liked the schooner and sought to purchase 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] The emperor immediately then took steps to acquire her for himself,[19] and 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 took 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 the 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] When the Meteor III was ordered in 1901 the Iduna, previously the Yampa, became the property of the emperor's wife.[35][36][37] The Iduna participated in various races into 1909.[38][39] The Induna and the Meteor III were sold in the early part of 1920 and the proceeds as a wedding present went to German crown prince Wilhelm, the heir to Kaiser Wilhelm II.[40]

References

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  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. ^ a b c d Outing 1898, p. 508.
  3. ^ a b "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. ^ a b 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. ^ a b c d 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. ^ a b c 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. ^ a b c SA 1902, p. 141.
  23. ^ "Yachting: The Emperor's Cup". Country Life Illustrated. Vol. 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.
  35. ^ "Will Have A Yankee Boat /Emperor William of Germany Orders a Schooner Yacht from A. Cary Smith of New York". The Boston Globe. Boston, Massachusetts. July 17, 1901. p. 4 – via Newspapers.com  .
  36. ^ "Captain Karpf in Command Meteor". The Washington Times. Washington, District of Columbia. February 2, 1902. p. 11 – via Newspapers.com  .
  37. ^ "Greatest Yacht Owner:the Kaiser". Buffalo Morning Express. Buffalo, New York. October 9, 1904. p. 12 – via Newspapers.com  .
  38. ^ "Billy is Strong on the Sea / The Kaiser aims at Yachting Supremacy". The Nebraska State Journal. Lincoln, Nebraska. October 9, 1904. p. 18 – via Newspapers.com  .
  39. ^ "Emperor's Motorboat Wins at Kiel". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. June 30, 1909. p. 11 – via Newspapers.com  .
  40. ^ "Wilhelm the Bridegroom". New York Tribune. New York, New York. November 5, 1922. p. 64 – via Newspapers.com  .

Sources

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  • Outing (1898). Yachting. 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" {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  • SA (March 1, 1902). The Emperor's Yacht – Meteor III. Vol. 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"
  • 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 (ed.). The Rudder, Volume XVIII. New York: The Rudder Publishing Company. p. 435.
 
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