A BUILDER'S HALF-SHIP MODEL FOR THE TURBINE STEAM MOTOR YACH...

Hammer

£4,500

A BUILDER'S HALF-SHIP MODEL FOR THE TURBINE STEAM MOTOR YACHT ARA DESIGNED AND BUILT BY CAMPER & NICHOLSON LTD. 1914, COMPLETED FOR THE FRENCH NAVY, 1917, AND SOLD TO W. K. VANDERBILT II, 1922

54in. laminated and carved hull, finished in red below the waterline with dark green topsides with plain deck mounted to display board with waterline tinting and builder's inscription lower left -- 12 x 60in. (30.5 x 152.5cm.); together with a set of nine facsimile ¼in:1ft scale plans for the Ara, stamped Camper & Nicholson 1979, and some historical data

(A lot)

Large numbers of sea-going steam and motor yachts were chartered or commandeered for government service during the Great War, but few enjoyed such a fascinating life as the Ara. Built for pleasure in an English boatyard, bought by the French Navy for conversion into a fully-fledged naval sloop and then, when hostilities ended, resold to the colourful scion of one of America’s wealthiest and most famous families who not only turned her back into a luxurious pleasure craft but also used her as a serious oceanic research vessel. This remarkable character was William Kissam Vanderbilt II [WKV] (1878 – 1944), an immensely rich automobile and power boat enthusiast, yachtsman and renowned collector of ethnographica and the curiosities of the natural world, and the great-grandson of the legendary American railway tycoon “Commodore” Cornelius Vanderbilt. Known to his friends as “Willie K”, WKV enjoyed great success racing power yachts in the years preceding the Great War and, when his own wartime service finished, succumbed to the lure of the ocean by buying a 1,400 ton twin-screw ex-naval sloop named Ara in 1922. Ordered and begun in Camper & Nicholson’s Southampton yard in 1913, her completion was delayed until 1917 owing to the default of her owner. Then acquired by the French government and converted into an armed naval sloop, she sailed under French colours for the remainder of the War until decommissioned and returned to Camper & Nicolson pending sale in 1922 and where she was spotted by WKV. Given his wealth, it seems curious that he didn’t order a brand new motor yacht to his own specifications but, for reasons unknown, he bought Ara and reconverted her into a pleasure yacht for his own use. Possibly the result of his second marriage in 1927 to a woman who perhaps craved travel, the following year he and his new wife Rosamund, a few friends and a ‘crew’ of forty left Centerport, New York State, on the first of their two circumnavigations of the globe. Quite apart from the crew required to man the vessel, the yacht’s complement also included scientists and photographers to analyse and study natural phenomena found en route and to produce detailed reports for the American Museum of Natural History as well as for WKV’s own private museum. Having obtained his Master’s certificate in 1918, WKV mostly skippered Ara himself and although she carried three watch officers, more often than not it was WKV himself at the wheel. The epic voyage of 28,738 miles took six months and WKV deemed it so successful that he very soon bought a second, even larger motor yacht, the Alva, and in her completed his second circumnavigation in 1931. By then, the Ara had already been sold, but whatever life she encountered thereafter, it seems unlikely that it was as interesting as what had gone before.

fine overall condition, topside paint containing fine craquelure associated with age