A royal yacht is a ship used by a monarch or a royal family. If the monarch is an emperor the proper term is imperial yacht. Most of them are financed by the government of the country of which the monarch is head. The royal yacht is most often crewed by personnel from the navy and used by the monarch and their family on both private and official travels.
Some royal yachts have been small vessels only used for short trips on rivers or in calm waters, but others have been large seaworthy ships.
History
Depending on how the term is defined royal yachts date back to the days of antiquity with royal barges on the Nile in ancient Egypt.
Later the Vikings produced royal vessels. They followed the pattern of longships although highly decorated and fitted with purple sails (purple sails remained standard for royal vessels the next 400 years).[1]
In England, Henry V sold off the royal yachts to clear the Crown's debts. The next royal vessels in England were built in the Tudor period with Henry VIII using a vessel in 1520 that was depicted as having cloth of gold sails.[2]James I had Disdain, a ship in miniature (she was later recorded as being able to carry about 30 tons), built for his son Prince Henry. Disdain was significant in that she allowed for pleasure cruising and as a result can be seen as an early move away from royal ships as warships.
The first ships to unquestionably qualify as royal yachts were those owned by Charles II of England Scotland and Ireland.[citation needed] The first was gift from the Dutch but later yachts were commissioned and built in England. This established a tradition of royal yachts in Britain that was later copied by other royal families of Europe. Through the 19th century royal yachts got larger as they became a symbol of national wealth. World War I brought this trend to an end and the royal families that survived found it harder to justify the cost with the result that there are only three royal yachts left in use in Europe.[when?][citation needed] For the most part royal yachts have been superseded by the use of warships in this role, as royal yachts are often seen as a hard-to-justify expenditure. In addition most monarchies with a railway system employ a special set of ceremonial royal carriages. Most monarchies are also granted access to government owned aircraft for transportation.
Mahroussa (also known as El Horria) (1866–1951) was built for Isma'il Pasha, the Khedive of Egypt. She passed the Suez Canal during its opening. Lengthened twice, she was converted from paddle steamer to screw propellers. She now serves as a school ship for the Egyptian Navy.
Germany
During the existence of the German Empire, the Kaiser used these imperial yachts:
King Hussein of Jordan was aboard his royal yacht (name not reported) in the Gulf of Aqaba when on 7 June 1981 it was overflown by eight low-flying Israeli F-16s en route to attack the Osirak reactor in Iraq during Operation Opera. One of the pilots described it as 'stunning white... incredible'.[17]
Monaco
Princess Alice (1891 by Prince Albert I) 53 m (174 ft)[18][19]
Deo Juvante II (1956–1958 by Prince Rainier III and Princess Grace) 45 m (147 ft)[20]
Carostefal (1964 by Prince Rainier III and Princess Grace) 18 m (59 ft)[21]
Stalca (1971–1972 by Prince Rainier III and Princess Grace) 25 m (82 ft)[22]
King Haakon VII received the royal yacht Norge as a gift from the people of Norway in 1947. The royal yacht is owned by the king but maintained and crewed by the Royal Norwegian Navy. Before this other naval ships had served as royal sea transport and the king used some smaller boats for short trips mostly on official occasions.
The Portuguese King Charles I used four successive royal yachts, all named Amélia, after his wife, Queen Amélie of Orleans. These yachts were, mainly, used by Charles I for his oceanographic missions. It was in the Amélia IV that King Manuel II and the Portuguese royal family left the country for the exile, after the republican revolution of 5 October 1910. In the republican regime the Amélia IV was renamed NRP 5 de Outubro and operated by the Portuguese Navy.
The United Kingdom has had 83 royal yachts since the restoration of Charles II of England in 1660.[45] Charles II himself had 25 royal yachts,[46] while five were simultaneously in service in 1831.[47] Since the decommissioning of Britannia in 1997 the British monarchy no longer has a royal yacht.[48]
Other nations
The Principality of Monaco owned the princely yacht Deo Juvante II between 1956–1958. This Camper and Nicholsons yacht was a wedding gift from Aristotle Onassis to Prince Rainer and Grace Kelly and was used on their honeymoon. The yacht, now called M/Y Grace, is now owned and operated by Quasar Expeditions.
Zanzibar had only one naval ship in 1896, the royal yacht HHS Glasgow. It was sunk by the British during the shortest war in history, the Anglo-Zanzibar War.
Other nations that employ some form of yacht presently or in the past include China and Sarawak.
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