wilhelm 2 yacht

METEOR - THE GERMAN ROYAL YACHTS

https://yachtemoceans.com/meteor-german-royal-yachts/

JANUARY 4, 2014|IN SAILING YACHTS|BY RENÉ

Meteor were the names of five German royal racing sailing yachts owned by Wilhelm II, German Emperor.

Wilhelm II (in English: William II) governed the German Empire from 1888 to 1918 and was also the King of Prussia and belonged to the House of Hohenzollern. His grandmother was Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

Not much known: Wilhelm II was an enthusiastic yachtsman. He owned several sailing yachts and enjoyed yacht races in Germany and United Kingdom. He owned not only sailing yachts. Two of his yachts were the H.M.S. Hohenzollern I (88 meters) and H.M.S. Hohenzollern II (120 meters).

The original name of the first Meteor was Thistle. This yacht was designed by George Lennox Watson launched in 1887 at D. and W. Henderson & Company at the Clyde river in Scotland and had a length of 33.05 meters. The order was given by some members of the Royal Clyde Yacht Club. Her Mission: Challenging the American defender yacht Volunteer at the 7. America’s Cup. Unfortunately, she lost 0-2 against Volunteer from the New York Yacht Club. However, she was very successful when she was back in her home waters. That’s why Wilhelm II bought the yacht because he was looking for a promising regatta yacht.

Meteor I (ex Thistle) in drydock before 1899

Meteor I (ex Thistle)

Main Specifications METEOR I

• Type: Racing cutter
• Length over all: 33.05 m
• Length water line: 26.35 m
• Beam: 6.20 m
• Draft: 4.16 m
• Sailing area: 1.245 m²

Wilhelm II wanted a faster racing yacht. He charged the yacht designer George Lennox Watson to construct the new one. The yacht was also built by D. and W. Henderson, like her predecessor. She served until 1902. This yacht was similar to H.M.Y. Brittania

Main Specifications METEOR II

• Type: New dashing racing-cutter of Britannia-type
• Length over all: 37.06 m
• Length water line: 27.02 m
• Beam: 7.27 m
• Draft: 5.50 m
• Sailing area: 1.045 m²

1902 – new yacht, new designer and new shipyard. Not British, not German – Wilhelm II decided to the American designer Cary Smith and the American shipyard Townsend & Downey Shipbuilding Co.

Alice Roosevelt – the daughter of the U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt – christened the yacht. That was the beginning of the German-American sailing friendship.

In 1909 Dr. Carl Dietrich Harries (the husband of Werner von Siemens‘ daughter – Hertha) bought the yacht and renamed her in Nordstern (North Star) and converted to cruise with her in German and Mediterranean seas.

The launch of Meteor III in New York, 25 February 1902

Main Specifications METEOR III

• Type: Schooner
• Length over all:
• Length water line:
• Sailing area: m²

Meteor IV was a complete German yacht. She was designed by Max Oertz and was built by Germaniawerft in Kiel.

Postcard of the Meteor IV by the Imperial German Post Office

Wilhelm II on SMY Meteor IV

Oil Painting of Yacht Meteor IV

Main Specifications METEOR IV

• Length over all: 47.14 m
• Length water line: 33.05 m
• Beam: 8.27 m
• Draft: 5.49 m
• Sailing area: 1.371 m²
• She was the last and biggest sailing yacht belongs to Wilhelm II. Like Meteor IV also designed by Max Oertz and built in 1914 by Germaniawerft in Kiel.

Main Specifications METEOR V

• Length over all: 47.60 m
• Length water line: 32.13 m
• Beam: 7.68 m
• Draft: 5.48 m
• Sailing area: 1.410 m²
• THISTLE PRESS

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Our future lies on the seas. Meteors last Kaiser

Our future lies on the seas! William II at the dedication of the port of Stettin, 23 Sep 1898

The last Kaiser of Germany, Wilhelm II, aka William the Furious – a person is equally extraordinary and contradictory. The heir to the Prussian military traditions, because, perhaps, of English roots on my mother’s side – the eldest daughter of Queen Victoria, was distinguished by a passion for the sea, sea travel and yachting sports.

Most clearly this side has become manifest since the accession of the Emperor to the throne. Since 1889 Wilhelm regularly come in long cruises, dubbed “Northern expeditions” (“Nordlandia”), attended the regatta and the marine week in the British port city of Cowes, the German cities of Cuxhaven and Kiel. In the same year he made the first step towards the creation of a large German Navy, the establishment of the Main naval command, or “Reichsmarine”.

For six years, until 1895, Wilhelm personally on your own yacht took part in international races. From 1889 until the outbreak of the First world war sports yacht of the Kaiser, each of which their achievements have received worldwide recognition, with great success has performed in all prestigious competitions of Europe and the United States.

The very first of the Imperial yacht “meteor I” was purchased by Wilhelm in 1891 for 90,000 gold marks – in General a small amount was fully paid for by the German government. It was a cutter 108-foot (33 m) tender, initially bearing the name “Thistle” was built in 1887 in the Scottish shipyard of D & W Henderson in Glasgow. It was created in great secrecy in order to participate in the America’s Cup, which eventually took second place.

However, it is “meteor I” brought fame to the Kaiser as a yachtsman. For several years the yacht under his command performed successfully in many European regattas, and in 1895 the race of the Royal Cup great Britain beat the favorite yacht of the Prince of Wales (later king Edward VII) “Britain”.

The rapid development of the yachting industry was threatened by the emergence of rivals new, more modern yachts. Warning the slightest hint of possible defeat in the future races, prudently Wilhelm in 1895, placed in the shipyard of D & W Henderson new order.

The crew of the “Meteor II”, half of which, by the way, was composed of English sailors who suffered the insult stoically and took it as a challenge. A few days later, the yacht won the English race Nore to Dover, ahead of “Britain” by 9.5 minutes, and in June 1896 in a race in Southampton her break with “Britain” was as much as 25 minutes. For several years, the “meteor II” was the winner of many international regattas. No doubt, it was the best sport boat at the time, a sample of the skill of British shipbuilders and the pride of Wilhelm II.

In 1902 the Imperial watch favorite took schooner “meteor III”. It was designed for William American designers H. G. Barbey & A. Carey Smith, built at the shipyard Townsend & Downey Shipbuilding Co. became an improved version of an ocean cruiser “Iduna” (formerly “Jampa”) built in America in 1887 and owned by the wife of William Don.

25 Feb 1902 “meteor III” dubbed Theodore Roosevelt’s daughter Alice. The Grand launching was held in the presence of Roosevelt, brother of the Kaiser, Prince Henry, and the many hundreds of American spectators. The event was captured on camera in March of the same year was assembled documentary film “the Meteor III Afloat” (IMDb tt0367447). It was a great occasion “warm up” German-American relations, and it was a really luxurious yacht.

During the service of the “Meteor III” the interest in yachting sport has reached unprecedented heights. On regatta gathered presented different classes and social groups and, of course, honorable representatives of other countries. “Arrive at this time in Kiel yard, and assembled there the entire German fleet. The race was followed by the court celebrations, the city was filled with plenty of visitors…” – writes about the Kiel week in 1907 by M. P. Bock, daughter of P. A. Stolypin.

And again: “Yachts participating in the races of the first class, was struck by its majestic beauty. After all, it was a real large two-masted ships of 350 tons displacement, with a team of seventy people, a huge sail area and very spacious, due to the lack of machinery, the premises. They were only three: the personal yacht of Kaiser Wilhelm, “meteor”, Krupp — “Germany” owned by the city of Hamburg “Hamburg”.

Great schooner “meteor III” properly served Wilhelm II for seven years, until 1909, when she began to give way to the latest yacht rivals. One of its main competitors, as noted in his memoirs, and M. P. Side, was a yacht “Germania”, built by the family Krupp for recently bought in Kiel shipyard Germaniawerft Fr Krupp. The obvious reaction Wilhelm became new order – “meteor IV”.

As to no longer meet the needs of the Emperor “Meteor III”, in 1909 it was sold to a famous German chemist Karl Dietrich Harris and his wife, Frau Hertha, the youngest daughter Werner von Siemens – founder of the transnational concern Siemens. Change of owners, the yacht received a new name “Northern star” and a new life: she has several times participated in the Kiel weeks and regularly went to sea to float freely.

During the service, “meteor IV” was involved in almost all well-known European regattas. Within four years, it was called a formidable rival in the Maritime weeks in Cowes and Kiel, in regattas in Campbeltown (Kintyre, Scotland), the race of the Royal yacht club of St. George Kingston (Ireland), the race the Royal London yacht club on the Thames and in the big regattas of the Royal yacht clubs of London.

In early 1914, he was drafted into the “meteor V”. New schooner with a length of 156 ft (47.6 m) was also designed by max Ertem (Max Oertz) and built at the shipyard “Germany” (Germaniawerft Fr Krupp). Rapidly developing events on the world stage is not allowed “Meteor V” to build the same long and successful career as his predecessors. However, his sporting life was as short as it is bright in a matter of months before the outbreak of the First world war “meteor V” managed to participate and win the regatta Elbregatta.

It is known that all the “Meteors” after “write-off” for some time remained in the fleet of Wilhelm II as a training or pleasure yachts. The only exception was the “meteor III”, which, as mentioned above, immediately found a buyer.

In 1921 the yacht again replaced the owner – now it was Maurice Buno-Varilla, owner of the Paris newspaper Le Matin. In 1924 it was acquired by the Italian Baron Alberto Fassini. In 1932, Fassini sold the yacht to a man named Gillett, who soon passed it to the British brokers Campbel & Nicholsons. After several months of inactivity it was bought by an American named Francis Taylor and served him until 1940. Taylor sold the boat to Gerald S. Foley, who, in turn, sold it to David Feinberg, who is Nicholas Allen. In 1941, the boat was requisitioned in the Second world war was used for the needs of the Navy.

Ironically, in 1946, after long wanderings Imperial “meteor III”, under the name “Aldebaran”, found its last resting place on the dock for debriefing ships John Witt on the island of Shooters in the Bay of Newark – where from 1900 to 1910 was located Builder, Townsend & Downey Shipbuilding Co. and where he in 1902 solemnly came off the stocks.

With the beginning of the First world war traces of the other “Meteors” are completely lost. Some sources claim that all yachts were sunk in the fighting. Others say that they were later requisitioned by the government of the new Weimar Republic. There is also a view that the yacht, as the more movable of the Imperial estate, were sold in 1919 by Wilhelm II, who really needed a lot of money for the purchase of the castle in Dorne – a place six kilometers from Amerongen in the Netherlands, where the last Kaiser of Germany will spend the rest of my life.

In the article used a variety of materials, including: Giles McDonough. The last Kaiser. William Frantic, Moscow, AST, 2004 Side M. P. P. A. Stolypin. Memories of my father. 1884— 1911. / Moscow, ZAO tsentrpoligraf, 2007 Materials from the archives of Klaus Kramer. New American Yacht – The Sydney Morning Herald, London, Aug. 10, 1910 John Leather. Sailing with the Kaiser 2 – Classic Boat Journal, 2011 Lillian Ross. The Kaiser’s Yacht – The New Yorker, June 22, 1946 The official website of The Telegraph.

Egor Lanin Author ruYachts

Journalist, news editor. The team ruYachts.com 2014. Major topics: motor yachts, concepts, gadgets and technology.

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• © Photo material: Archive version of the portal ruYachts.com

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SMY Hohenzollern

SMY Hohenzollern (de:Seiner Majestät Yacht Hohenzollern) was the name of several Yachts used by Wilhelm I., Deutscher Kaiser and Wilhelm II., Deutscher Kaiser between 1878 and 1918, named after their House of Hohenzollern .

• 1 SMY Hohenzollern I
• 2 SMY Hohenzollern II
• 3 SMY Hohenzollern III
• 4 Imperial racings yachts

SMY Hohenzollern I

The first S.M.Y. Hohenzollern was built 1876 to 1878. In 1892 it was renamed Kaiseradler . It was scrapped in 1912.

• You may upload: de:Bild:Hohenzollern Yacht.jpg , 1885

SMY Hohenzollern II

The second SMY Hohenzollern in use as Imperial Yacht from 1893 to July 1914.

SMY Hohenzollern III

The Hohenzollern III was launched in September 1914 but never finished due to war. It was scrapped in 1923

Imperial racings yachts

The Thistle was purchased by Wilhelm II in 1891 and renamed Meteor . The same named was reused for later models.

• Hohenzollern (ship, 1876)
• Hohenzollern (ship, 1892)
• Royal yachts of Germany

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THE KAISER'S YACHT

The New Yorker , June 22, 1946 P. 66

WHERE ARE THEY NOW? about Kaiser' Wilhelm's yacht, Meteor III, & its successive owners, 12 in number. In 1901, the Kaiser ordered the schooner yacht to be built for him by the firm of Townsend & Downey Shipbuilding Co., on Shooter Island. The designers were H. G. Barbey & A. Carey Smith, the launching took place Feb. 25, 1902, & the yeach was christened by Alice Roosevelt. The Meteor's racing record was not impressive & in 1909, she was sold to a Dr. Carl Dietrich Harries, who rechristened her to Nordstern. In 1921, she was sold to Maurice Bunau-Varilla, owner of the Paris newspaper Le Matin. In 1924, she was bought b yan Italian Baron, named Alberto Fassini. In 1932, Fassini sold the yacht to a man named Gillet, who shortly turned her ov to Campbel & Nicholsons, British yacht brokers. After a few months of idleness she was bought by an American named Francis Taylor. Taylor sailed her for several years and then sold her to Sterling Hayden who returned her to her former owner. In 1940, Taylor sold her to Gerald S. Foley who in turn sold her to a David Feinburg. Feinburg sold her to Nicholas Allen. That year the Navy requisitioned her. Today, the Meteor III, whose name was changed to Aldebaran, lies in the yard of a shipsbreaker by the name of John Witte, only a few miles from where she was built.

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The Great War

Militarism and Humiliation Cast Shadow on Germany

A U-boat on display as part of a naval memorial in Kiel, Germany, a Baltic seaport. The city epitomized Germany’s rapid industrialization and militarization under Otto von Bismarck and then Kaiser Wilhelm II. In 1870, as Bismarck unified Germany, Kiel had around 30,000 inhabitants. By 1914, when Europe’s leaders stumbled into World War I, its population exceeded 227,000.

Visitors at the memorial in Kiel. By the end of the war, Kiel bore witness to the depths of German defeat. Under the Treaty of Versailles, the country’s proud navy was limited to just a few ships and 15,000 men — far fewer than the 35,000 German sailors who had perished in World War I.

A statue of Kaiser Wilhelm I on horseback adorns a central park in Kiel. Memories of might, militarism and humiliation make Germans today reluctant to project their clout as, once again, Europe’s economic powerhouse.

Uta Körby, a 69-year-old Kiel native, has been working to draw attention to the Nazi past and to memorialize its victims.

Stones with the names of Nazi victims written by schoolchildren are part of Ms. Körby’s “Battleground: History” project.

The memorial built to honor Germany’s naval dead in World War I. It is a tower and flamelike structure of reinforced concrete with an outer layer of north German brick, soaring nearly 300 feet above the coast at Laboe, where Kiel Sound meets the open sea. It was designed in 1927, but finished and opened only in 1936, when Kiel hosted the sailing events in the Olympics.

An exhibition of German warships at the naval memorial. Most Germans remain reluctant to see their country’s force deployed in any way commensurate with its economic heft.

Today, Kiel is still a seafaring town. But the city is a mosaic of ill-matched architecture with a defeated air: a place pondering how to remember and interpret a dreadful 20th century.

By Alison Smale

• June 26, 2014

KIEL, Germany — On June 28, 1914, Kaiser Wilhelm II was preparing to indulge in a favorite pastime: racing his yacht Meteor at a regatta that is still held each year in this seafaring stronghold. When he learned of the assassination in Sarajevo of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Hapsburg Empire, he hastened to Berlin. But he quickly returned to this Baltic Sea port, on which he lavished so much money and time in his frantic race to match or outdo British naval superiority.

In many ways, Kiel epitomized Germany’s rapid industrialization and militarization from 1870 to 1914, under Otto von Bismarck and then the kaiser. Numbers alone tell a story: In 1870, as Bismarck unified Germany, Kiel had around 30,000 inhabitants. By 1914, when Europe’s leaders stumbled into World War I, its population exceeded 227,000.

Four years later, Kiel bore witness to the depths of German defeat. A sailors’ rebellion that started here spread nationwide and helped force the abdication of the kaiser in November 1918. The next year, rather than let the Imperial Fleet fall to the enemy, German commanders on Scapa Flow, off Scotland, scuttled 52 of the fleet’s 74 vessels. Under the Treaty of Versailles, signed five years to the day after the archduke’s assassination, the proud navy was limited to just a few ships and 15,000 men — far fewer than the 35,000 German sailors who had perished in World War I.

Might, militarism and humiliation: These are the memories that make Germans today reluctant to project their clout as, once again, Europe’s economic powerhouse . One hundred years on from World War I, German leadership in Europe is both desired and resented, a historically rooted ambivalence that is keenly felt by the Germans and by their wary neighbors.

Most Germans remain reluctant to see their country’s force deployed in any way commensurate with its economic heft. But this abstention from military action does not mean that Germany is not throwing its weight about.

During the European debt crisis , Chancellor Angela Merkel demonstrated that no solution was possible without Germany’s helping hugely to pay for it. Always calm, she brooked little criticism and brushed aside anti-German sentiment as she pushed to impose austerity on supposedly profligate European neighbors.

Today, with nationalism and populism on the rise in Europe, Ms. Merkel is central in trying to untangle a tussle over European leadership that may hasten a British exit from the European Union, and she faces demands from two other major partners, France and Italy, to relax stringent budgetary demands.

In Germany, the enormity of Nazi crimes in World War II tends to overshadow World War I, which consumed more than 37 million lives, including those wounded and missing, and four empires. In some ways, the 100th anniversary has reminded Germans that Hitler and his supporters bore deep scars from the country’s catastrophic defeat in 1918. Germans are observing the occasion with some 80 exhibitions nationwide, and with countless discussions and seminars. “ The Sleepwalkers ,” Christopher Clark’s chunky history of how Europe went to war in 1914, is a best seller and its author a coveted guest for centenary discussions.

In Kiel, the imperial stamp always lingered. A statue of Kaiser Wilhelm I on horseback adorns a central park. The Kiel Canal, to this day an important waterway linking the North and Baltic Seas, was named after Wilhelm II when it opened in 1895. Outsize paintings of the opening still stare down at the regal Kiel Yacht Club.

Paradoxically, it was development on land that helped bolster the importance of this natural deep-sea port. By the time of Bismarck, the growth of railways had brought goods and people to Kiel from all over Germany and enabled the delivery of imports throughout the newly unified country. Later, shipyards that had produced Germany’s first submarine in 1851 were central to Wilhelm II’s naval race with Britain.

Especially after 1900, Wilhelm poured torrents of money into the German Navy. In 1906, Britain’s Royal Navy took delivery of H.M.S. Dreadnought, with its groundbreaking armament of big guns. Wilhelm and top members of his navy and government responded with plans to build two dreadnoughts and one battle cruiser per year, as well as to dredge and widen the Kiel Canal so the large new vessels could use it.

Four battle cruisers were produced in Kiel from 1907 to 1910, completed ahead of schedule. Naval spending rose steadily at least until 1912, when military commanders came to consider a land war more likely.

Britain and France were alarmed by Wilhelm’s ambition. Britain’s determination to keep its navy supreme only heightened German anxieties, already running high because the kaiser felt beleaguered on two fronts. The huge Russian Army ensured that his perceived foes had more men under arms than Germany and its Austro-Hungarian allies could muster.

In some sense, his naval expansion may have been a salve for this insecurity. At any rate, the Reichskriegshafen Kiel, the imperial war harbor here, profited. By the time war broke out in 1914, the navy had 22 pre-dreadnought ships, 14 dreadnoughts and four battle cruisers.

Three more warships were completed by November 1914, and construction continued throughout the war, with a battle cruiser added in late 1914, 1916 and 1917. Naval historians, however, tend to accord more significance to Germany’s U-boats, which were responsible for the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915, for instance, eventually helping to draw the United States into Europe’s Great War.

A similar shipbuilding boom erupted in the 1930s after Hitler took power and reached an agreement with Britain, ushering in a new wave of production of submarines and surface battle vessels. The shipbuilding made Kiel a prime target for Allied bombs, and by the end of the war in 1945, it was 80 percent destroyed.

Today, Kiel is still a seafaring town. Submarines are still built here. Sailors bob on Kiel Sound. Instead of dreadnoughts and battle cruisers, hulking cruise and cargo ships dominate the urban shoreline. But the city is a mosaic of ill-matched architecture and buildings that have changed purpose. Wilhelm’s proud Naval Academy, for instance, is now the parliamentary seat of Schleswig-Holstein, the state of which Kiel is the capital. The mishmash lends a defeated air to a place still pondering how to remember and interpret a dreadful 20th century.

The histories of two concrete memorials illustrate the scars. One was originally intended to honor Germany’s naval dead in World War I. The other is the Flandernbunker, or Flanders bunker, built outside the main surviving military base here. Its name stems from a Nazi campaign to lionize the Germans killed in the World War I trenches, and it sheltered military commanders and select civilians in the global conflict that ignited two decades later.

Today, a local art historian, Jens Rönnau, runs the bunker as an alternative arts and conference center with a goal of teaching peace and how to avoid future wars.

Last month, about 150 people spent two days on what Uta Körby, a 69-year-old Kiel native working to draw attention to the Nazi past and memorialize its victims, calls “Battleground: History.”

The location was the memorial built for the World War I sailors. It is a tower and flamelike structure of reinforced concrete with an outer layer of north German brick, soaring nearly 300 feet above the coast at Laboe, where Kiel Sound meets the open sea. It was designed in 1927, but finished and opened only in 1936, when Kiel hosted the sailing events in the Olympics. Hitler attended but did not speak.

Instead, the Nazis left their mark in a subterranean memorial hall with a demand: “Bare your head and be silent!” Exiting up one staircase, today’s visitors — there are 200,000 a year — confront a 1936 glass tableau of sailors’ lives on ship and shore, in which a still-discernible swastika has replaced the sun.

For Jann M. Witt — the amiable, bearded historian of the German Naval Association, which looks after this memorial and a U-boat dry-docked across the road — the meaning of the place is clear: It was designed to glorify the German Navy and its victims in World War I. When the British, whose bombs had left the memorial unscathed, returned it to the association in 1954, the Germans decided it would be for all their naval victims in the two world wars, “and our dead adversaries.”

That was still too militaristic for many. So in 1996, it became a memorial for all those who have died at sea — a sweeping designation that has brought some notable international elements but results in a muddled exhibition that is still a tad nationalistic in tone.

Mr. Witt and his associates believe that the memorial can carry a message of peace. Standing in a hall that shows every German ship lost in the two world wars, the 35,000 German sailors lost in World War I and the 120,000 said to have been lost in World War II, Mr. Witt recalled visiting with his grandfather, a member of the navy, when he was a boy.

“This,” he said, “was the first place that I realized that war is not a game.”

Around the World With The Times

Our reporters across the globe take you into the field..

China’s Risky Power Play: As China pushes to dominate the South China Sea, it is increasingly willing to use force to drive out the Philippines , a treaty ally of the United States, raising fears of a superpower showdown.

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Schlachtschiff 1900-1922  Kaiser Friedrich III  Class

class were part of the 1897 naval construction program. With those ships, a new layout for German battleships was introduced which got characterisical for all German battleships. Unlike their predecessors of the Brandenburg class, the class was only equipped with 24 cm guns, but the number of secondary guns was more than doubled. They were the first German battleships with three shafts, a characteristic feature that was kept for most German capital ships. In difference to many other German ships, they took not over much water in heavy seas and they were reported to be very good seagoing ships. All five ships were used for fleet service until 1916, followed by a three year duty as harbor ships before they were decommissioned. was the fleet flagship until 1906. In 1915 it was used as the office ship of the fleet commander in Wilhelmshaven and broken down in 1922 in Hamburg.

	Last modified: 01.07.2003

The royal faux pas at Cowes Week that foreshadowed the First World War

This week marks the return of Cowes Week on the Isle of Wight, an all-singing, all-dancing sailing competition attended by the great and the good of high society. The annual festivities have had a royal connection as early as its second year, 1826, when King George IV showed his approval of the event by presenting the King's Cup.

Queen Victoria, who ascended to the throne 11 years after it was established, was another notable royal patron. There is even a famous old British joke about her fondness for the island: 'Why did Queen Victoria never ride a horse?' 'Because she preferred Cowes'.

Yet it was two of Victoria's descendants who have perhaps the most significant history at Cowes, her son Prince Edward (future King Edward VII) and her grandson, Kaiser Wilhelm II, who regularly clashed there in the 1890s.

On his annual trip to see his British relatives, Wilhelm was reportedly loud and aggressive, with his sense of humour leaving much to be desired. Meanwhile from the other side, it has been speculated that his British relatives mocked his attire, which was not right for the summer-casual aesthetic at Cowes, with its boat shoes and striped blazers.

The kaiser and the future king tried constantly to one-up each other with bigger, faster, flashier boats, with the German nephew desperate to impress his English uncle, who of course was known for his great fleet of naval ships.

In 1896, the kaiser had the biggest yacht yet built, the 121-ft long Meteor II , which he pitted against Edward's Britannia . After it won, the future king retired from racing at Cowes.

In 2008, reports emerged via the descendant of a bystander that the future king had punched his nephew, after he laughed at him for losing in a race. As Henry Brasted, son of local yachting specialist William Brasted, told the Daily Gazette : 'Kaiser Bill jeered King Teddy about the result, where straight away King Teddy hit him in the mouth, knocked him down, then stormed into the club.

'My father watched all this from the beaten rowing cutter. That episode was never printed in the papers at that time - imagine the consequences if they had.'

Historian Maldwin Drummond confirmed that there was a frostiness between the two royals, telling the paper at the time: 'There was certainly a considerable amount of bad blood. They were never pals because the kaiser was always trying to be one up. This irritated the Prince of Wales at first but later on it became more annoying, and there was no love lost between them.'

Of course, by the 1910s, relations between the uncle and his nephew were truly in a bad way, with the outbreak of the First World War looming in 1914.

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Yacht Replica that Inspired Spirit of Tradition: Adela’s Steel Rebuild

The rebuild of the 1903 wooden gaff cutter Adela as a steel yacht was highly controversial two decades ago, but today, we revisit her legacy as arguably the yacht that kick-started the spirit of tradition. Under new ownership, she’s now back on the race course… 

The first of the big yacht replicas.

In April 1903, two almost identical new yachts were launched on consecutive days: Evelyn having been built by Ramage & Ferguson in Leith, and Adela by Fay & Co in Southampton. They had been designed by WC Storey; both were of composite construction with English elm keels, 3½in (89mm)- thick yellow pine decking, and most other major components – including the 3¼in-thick (82mm) hull planking, stem, sternpost, rudder, stanchions and bulwarks – in teak; and neither had an engine. 

Adela had been commissioned by Claud Cayley – who was rear commodore of the Royal London YC and would later become vice commodore and eventually commodore – and was named after his oldest daughter. Although Adela was built primarily for cruising, Cayley regularly raced her around the coast of British Isles as well as on the continent. In 1904 she came second in a race from Kiel to Eckernforde for which she was awarded a trophy which, it is thought, was presented to Cayley by Kaiser Wilhelm II on board the 117m (382ft) imperial royal yacht Hohenzollern . While it is known that Cayley cruised Adela as far afield as Sweden, it is also possible that she visited the Mediterranean and crossed the Atlantic to Canada where Cayley had spent some of his early years.

At the end of 1913, Adela was sold to AFB Cresswell, who had little chance to use her before war broke out the following year. In 1916 she was requisitioned by the Royal Navy who used her for mine-hunting off the south coast of England, then soon after the war she was bought by Sven Hansen, a Welsh ship owner and builder. It was Hansen who had Adela’s first engine installed in her, a Bergen petrol paraffin motor.

Her next owner, from 1924, was Sir Henry Seymour King MP who made a number of changes. He renamed her Heartsease ; he significantly modified her rig by reducing the sail plan from around 13,000sqft to about 9,000 for ease of handling, and converted her to a topsail schooner by adding a square sail to the foremast; he replaced her dark mahogany saloon joinery with the much lighter timber sycamore, combined with fabric panelling; a few years later he replaced the petrol paraffin engine with an 87hp Gardner diesel. He spent the remaining years of his life cruising on Heartsease , often with his niece as his companion, visiting the Mediterranean and also Norway several times.

After Seymour King died in 1933, Heartsease was bought by Viscount Eyres Monsell, the First Lord of the Admiralty. He frequently cruised between the naval ports of Plymouth and Portsmouth, and each time he departed from either port, a six-gun salute was fired from the shore; and he often arranged for a destroyer to escort Heartsease to allow messages to be relayed to and from the Admiralty. 

It was probably in 1936 that Heartsease sailed for the very last time because soon after then, Monsell sold her, and with her next four owners she was laid up in various east coast mud berths and mostly used as a houseboat, and at some point during that period her rig and ballast keel were removed. In 1971, by which time she was in Lowestoft, she was bought by Australians Wing Commander Waller and his wife. They moved on board and soon began the work which they hoped would allow them to get Heartsease back into commission, with a view to sailing her back to Australia. 

Adela Enters the Modern World

American couple George and Frayda Lindemann had owned the 92ft yawl Gitana IV – designed and built by Sangermani in Italy in 1962 – since 1987. It wasn’t long before the Lindemanns starting discussing with Gitana’s captain Steve Carson the possibility of acquiring a bigger boat. After considering various large classic yachts such as Lulworth , Mariette , Cambria and Candida , Steve heard that the Wallers had abandoned their plans for Heartsease and put her on the market, so he went to look at her. Two years later, the deal was done. Steve and the Lindemanns had formed a fruitful relationship with Pendennis Shipyard in Falmouth , where they had taken Gitana IV for a couple of refits, so in December 1992 Heartsease was towed there – with 27 air bags inside her to ensure she remained afloat – with a view to restoring her. 

However, as the dismantling of the hull progressed, it became increasingly apparent that not only was the steel framework in appalling condition and would pretty much all need replacing, very little of the teak planking would be reusable. So, amid no little controversy – much of it expressed in the pages of this magazine, perhaps in part by people who could not have been aware of the true condition of the hull – it was decided to build a new boat with an all-steel hull, incorporating as much as could be saved from the old boat. The Dutch naval architect Gerard Dykstra was asked to produce designs for the new boat which would be known as K2 during her construction.

An absolute priority for K2 was that she should have the same styling as the original boat, maintaining, in particular, the appearance of the profile, the sheer line and the deck furniture. Gerard was all too aware that he would have to allow for the weight and space of a great deal of machinery and equipment which would never have been fitted on an early-20 th -century yacht but which, in the modern era, was now considered essential. So, using the original lines plan as a starting point, he gave K2 rounder bilges, a metre more beam (primarily to provide buoyancy to compensate for the machinery weight, but also for additional stability) and replaced the long keel and keel-hung rudder with a more modern fin-and-skeg profile. 

Throughout the boat, the style of the original joinery – the panelling, deck beams, overheads, even down to the detail of the pin rails, dado rails and the curved bulkhead sections in the passageway at the bottom of the stairs, was replicated. While almost all of the interior was built with new Brazilian mahogany and utile, some of the original joinery from various parts of the old boat was reused in the port aft guest cabin, although memories vary as to just how much. Fittings such as door handles and door knobs, drawer pulls, hinges and overhead glass-domed lights were replicated from original or existing items and nickel silver-plated. The 5.5m (18ft) long trail-boards each side of the bow at the sheer, and the stanchions and capping rail around the fluted stern were all saved from the original boat and reused. Thirty-five new Lewmar winches – 17 of them hydraulically powered – were fitted, along with two Muir hydraulic windlasses, and much of the deck hardware was made by Ian Terry Engineering. A Lugger 640hp diesel engine was fitted, driving a Hundested variable pitch, four-blade propellor, while other mechanical equipment included two Northern Lights generators, an HEM watermaker, Marine Air Systems air-conditioning, and Hein & Hopman refrigeration.

While acknowledging that, in an ideal world, it would have been wonderful for the original rig to be replicated on K2, Steve felt that it just wasn’t practical, at least certainly not with the 10 permanent crew planned. So it was decided that K2 would have a bermudan rig, but with masts significantly higher than those of the original. The new spars were built by Carbospars in carbon fibre, and the main mast was, at the time, easily the longest spar yet to be built in that material. The sails were supplied by North Sails UK, the upwind sails from the company’s own Gatorback Spectra-785TX cloth which had a Spectra content significantly stronger than any previously produced by the company. The 471 m2 (5,070 sft) mainsail, according to North’s own newsletter, was “one of largest triangular mainsails ever built by North, if not the largest”.

Adela on Fire

In October 1994, about a month before K2 was due to be launched, a devastating fire swept through the shed in which she was being built. While two other boats – one aluminium, the other GRP composite – were destroyed, K2’s steel hull saved her. But she was catastrophically damaged, and an enormous amount of work lay ahead to put everything right. Among other things, all of the exterior hull paint and filler had to be removed and reapplied; virtually all of the exterior timber work had to be replaced (the timber work from the original boat which had been fitted around the stern was too badly damaged to be reused, but happily the original trail-boards survived); all of the interior joinery work had to be carefully removed so that it could be refinished and also to allow replacement of the hull insulation (not least for fear of a lingering smell); and the engine and generators were sent back to the manufacturers in the USA to be thoroughly inspected to ensure the warranty conditions would be honoured. Thanks to the extraordinary hard work and positive attitude of all the Pendennis staff, as well as the support and understanding of their contractors and suppliers, somehow they managed to launch the new boat the following April. She was christened Adela and a few weeks later she was on her way to the Mediterranean.   

Sailing Once Again

This marked the beginning of an ambitious programme of world-wide cruising and racing for the Lindemanns. During their ownership Adela cruised extensively in the Mediterranean and the Caribbean as well as the Baltic, Alaska and east coast of the USA. In October 1997 she began a circumnavigation which took her from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean, through the Panama Canal, to San Francisco and then via various islands across the Pacific, to Darwin, Singapore and then across the Indian Ocean and via the Suez Canal back into the Mediterranean. On the race course she had her share of success in regattas throughout the Caribbean and Mediterranean, in San Francisco, New England and Cowes , and she also won line honours in the 1997 Transatlantic race from New York to the Lizard. While she didn’t easily fit into the format of classic boat regattas initially, she was at the forefront of the creation of Spirit of Tradition classes which have been included in such regattas ever since. Although a relatively casual attitude was taken to racing in the early years (for instance the tenders were left on deck, and she was often raced by barely more than the permanent crew and using just “white sails”), as time went by it was taken more seriously with increasing numbers of professional race crew and with the acquisition of specialist North 3Di racing sails, including a square top mainsail and foresail. 

Adela has returned to Pendennis Shipyard many times for refits and modifications, the biggest of which was in 2000 when she was literally cut in half to allow her length to be extended by 3.6 metres, primarily to provide better crew quarters but that did, of course, improve her sailing performance by increasing the waterline length and by separating the rigs. Other significant modifications have included two keel modifications, the second of which also incorporated a daggerboard; a retractable bow thruster to replace the tunnel thruster, and the addition of a stern thruster; and a Caterpillar 873 HP C18 engine replacing the Lugger. 

Tony Blair and Eric Clapton Come Aboard Adela

During the Lindemanns’ ownership, a number of well-known people came aboard Adela at various times. These included Tony Blair when he visited Pendennis Shipyard as the UK’s Leader of The Opposition while K2 was being constructed, Prince Philip soon after she was launched, the King of Spain and the Aga Kahn in Porto Cervo, Gianni Agnelli in Corsica, Leonardo de Caprio and some of the production crew from the Hollywood film The Beach in Phuket, Eric Clapton at the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta, and the America’s Cup sailor Dennis Connor who took Adela’s helm in several regattas. 

After 14 years as Adela’s captain, Steve retired in 2009, but his successor was an obvious choice. Greg Perkins had briefly been Gitana IV’s captain when Steve’s attention initially switched to Adela , and was then Adela’s mate for a couple of years. He took over when Steve retired and is still on board today. 

Aboard Adela in the Caribbean

In June 2018, George Lindemann died, and the following year Adela was sold to Brazilian Benjamin Steinbruch who had never previously owned a boat of any kind. Since then, he and his family and friends have spent about three months on board each year. They have continued the Lindemanns’ tradition of cruising in the Mediterranean and the Caribbean and have also spent time on the west coast of Scotland, in Northern Ireland and Norway.  

Benajmin’s first racing experience had to wait a bit longer, however. After covid scuppered plans to take part in the Antigua Superyacht Challenge in 2020, he and Adela at last did so in 2024 when I was lucky enough to be on board myself. Things didn’t initially go entirely to plan, however. On the first of two crew practice days, the racing mainsail showed signs of damage and had to be replaced by the cruising mainsail (all of the racing sails were ageing and had been spent the last five years in an inhospitably hot container in Antigua); the next day the 1,000m2 Code 4 asymmetric “big red” spinnaker was severely damage as a result of a less than perfect hoist (in fact, part of it was left in the sea and when we returned to it, a crew member had to take a swim to help retrieve it); and just before the start of the first race the No 1 jib, with no warning at all, ripped itself from leach to luff (any debate as to its repairability would have been futile). The race results weren’t too impressive either, with the might ketch Hetairos – the only other boat in our class – consistently getting the better of us. But none of that takes anything away from the fact that the whole crew – about 30 of us in total – got an enormous amount of pleasure out of the whole event; and most importantly, so did Benjamin.

For me, it was some of the most wonderful sailing of my life. And just for good measure, Adela was awarded the prestigious Gosnell Trophy which is presented to the yacht which competes “in the spirit of the regatta, both afloat and ashore”, as voted – unanimously in this case – by each competing boat and each member of the race committee.

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Christening and launching kaiser wilhelm's yacht 'meteor'.

At the christening and launching, our cameras occupied a most enviable position, being within ten feet of Miss Alice Roosevelt and Prince Henry at the time the bottle was broken. The scene opens by the band of the Royal Yacht "Hohenzollern" marching up the platform. Next a close view is shown of the arrival of President Roosevelt, who shakes hands with Mayor Seth Low, of New York City. Next comes Prince Henry and Miss Alice Roosevelt, accompanied by Colonel Bingham, of the U.S. Army, and Ambassador Count von Holleben, followed closely by Admiral Count Baudissin, of the Hohenzollern, Adjutant General Corbin and representative officers of the United States and German armies and navies. The party immediately proceed to the launching stand, followed by our panoramic cameras, Miss Alice Roosevelt leaning on the arm of Prince Henry of Prussia. A short wait taken up by conversation between Prince Henry, President Roosevelt and his daughter here ensues.

Alice Roosevelt Longworth Seth Low Theodore Roosevelt

Edison Studios

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25 feb 1902, releases by country.

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Meteor - The German Royal Yachts

Note: This article handles not the 52m schooner yacht by Royal Huisman from 2007.

Meteor were the names of five German royal racing sailing yachts owned by Wilhelm II, German Emperor .

Wilhelm II (in English: William II) governed the German Empire from 1888 to 1918 and was also the King of Prussia and belonged to the  House of Hohenzollern . His grandmother was  Queen Victoria  of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

Not much known: Wilhelm II was an enthusiastic yachtsman. He owned several sailing yachts and enjoyed yacht races in Germany and United Kingdom. He owned not only sailing yachts. Two of his yachts were the  H.M.S. Hohenzollern I (88 meters) and H.M.S. Hohenzollern II (120 meters).

The original name of the first  Meteor   was  Thistle . This yacht was designed by  George Lennox Watson  launched in 1887 at  D. and W. Henderson & Company  at the Clyde river in Scotland and had a length of 33.05 meters. The order was given by some members of the  Royal Clyde Yacht Club . Her Mission: Challenging the American defender yacht  Volunteer  at the 7.  America’s Cup . Unfortunately, she lost 0-2 against  Volunteer  from the  New York Yacht Club . However, she was very successful when she was back in her home waters. That’s why Wilhelm II bought the yacht because he was looking for a promising regatta yacht.

Meteor I (ex Thistle) in drydock before 1899

Meteor I (ex Thistle)

Main Specifications METEOR I

	Racing cutter
	1887
	33.05 m
	26.35 m
	6.20 m
	4.16 m
	1.245 m²

Wilhelm II wanted a faster racing yacht. He charged the yacht designer George Lennox Watson to construct the new one. The yacht was also built by D. and W. Henderson, like her predecessor. She served until 1902. This yacht was similar to H.M.Y. Brittania

Main Specifications METEOR II

	New dashing racing-cutter of Britannia-type
	1896
	37.06 m
	27.02 m
	7.27 m
	5.50 m
	1.045 m²

1902 – new yacht, new designer and new shipyard. Not British, not German – Wilhelm II decided to the American designer Cary Smith and the American shipyard Townsend & Downey Shipbuilding Co.

Alice Roosevelt – the daughter of the U.S. president  Theodore Roosevelt  – christened the yacht. That was the beginning of the German-American sailing friendship.

In 1909  Dr. Carl Dietrich Harries  (the husband of  Werner von Siemens ‘ daughter – Hertha) bought the yacht and renamed her in  Nordstern   (North Star) and converted to cruise with her in German and Mediterranean seas.

The launch of Meteor III in New York, 25 February 1902

Main Specifications METEOR III

	Schooner
	1902
	m²

Meteor IV  was a complete German yacht. She was designed by Max Oertz and was built by  Germaniawerft  in Kiel.

Postcard of the Meteor IV by the Imperial German Post Office

Wilhelm II on SMY Meteor IV

Oil Painting of Yacht Meteor IV

Main Specifications METEOR IV

	Schooner
	1909
	47.14 m
	33.05 m
	8.27 m
	5.49 m
	1.371 m²

She was the last and biggest sailing yacht belongs to Wilhelm II. Like Meteor IV also designed by Max Oertz and built in 1914 by Germaniawerft in Kiel.

Main Specifications METEOR V

	Schooner
	1914
	47.60 m
	32.13 m
	7.68 m
	5.48 m
	1.410 m²

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