Name Amazon

AMAZON's provenance is highly significant in explaining her survival today as possible the last remaining, ocean-going Victorian wooden screw schooner, particularly as her hull is still largely original. She has not had a 'restoration'.

She was designed by Dixon Kemp as a screw schooner (a propeller-driven power yacht with sails). Although of a size to undertake ocean voyages, she was intended for use only in the English Channel, where there was no shortage of coaling ports and so she did not require extended endurance at sea. Dixon Kemp notes: "As she was not required to carry a large quantity of coal for long passages, advantage of this was taken to keep the displacement as small as possible, and the lines, both fore and aft, as fine as seemed desirable. The machinery was placed amidships, and this admitted of a better run than can often be had: the afterbody, in fact, being almost identical with the forebody." AMAZON was built by Tankerville Chamberlayne, at his own private yacht yard, which had been created in the 1840s by his father (Thomas Chamberlayne, who died in 1876) to maintain the family's racing cutter, the famous ARROW. Tankerville Chamberlayne shared his father's love of yachting and continued to race in ARROW after 1876. He maintained her in racing trim with some success; in 1882, for example, she won 11 prizes from 16 starts, despite being some 61 years old.

AMAZON represents the pinnacle of Tankerville Charmberlayne's private yacht building success; he personally superintended her build, evidently took considerable pride in her and no expense or trouble was spared to make her as good as she could possibly be as his own family's yacht. While AMAZON would be available to accompany ARROW to sailing regattas if required, she would also allow independent family cruising in comfort under power and did so. AMAZON's sea trials were detailed in Dixon Kemp's 'Yacht Architecture', first published in 1885, where he recorded that the speed trials were achieved with a max 125hp. She was fitted with owners accommodation for two gentlemen (in individual staterooms) together with a twin 'ladies' cabin for two. AMAZON remained in Tankerville Chamberlayne's ownership until 1897, having been used in British and French waters. That year she was present at Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee Royal Fleet Review. She was then sold to M. Henri Dubois, Commodore of the Yacht Club Dinard, registered in France and renamed ARMORICAIN.

She returned to the British flag in 1900, where she has remained since. AMAZON was too old-fashioned and would have presented too much of a logistical challenge (with her relatively small coal bunkers) for naval service in the First World War. AMAZON had the very good fortune (and sufficiently wealthy owners) to survive the general cull of steam yachts that accompanied the rise of the motor yacht, the shortage of manpower after the First World War and the effects of the Great Depression. She was certainly remarkable for remaining in steam and active with her original boiler and engine until 1937, when she was some 52 years old. By 1938 she had been refitted with a new oil engine and was moored in Chelsea Reach, London. The Second World War saw AMAZON sacrifice her bronze propeller and 6 inch diameter bronze propeller shaft to the war effort and she became a dumb houseboat at Chiswick. She was very lucky to receive only slight damage from the German V-1 rocket that fell on Cubitt's Yacht Basin and destroyed the motor yacht HALCYON. She remained static at Chiswick until 1968, when she was sold as a houseboat to the actor Arthur Lowe and his wife. Her copper sheathing had preserved the bottom from damage, although the edge of her rudder, where the copper had worn, had been nibbled by gribble.

She was some 83 years old in 1968, but the surveyor's positive report that she was 'in remarkable condition for her age' stimulated Arthur Lowe's heartfelt desire to make her a seagoing yacht again. This was a considerable objective and was achieved in 1971. She was then used as a convenient base and accommodation while Arthur Lowe acted at theatres along the English south coast. AMAZON also undertook some television work and even made an appearance in the Onedin Line in 1979, appropriately playing the part of a steam yacht called AMAZON. Following Arthur Lowe's death in 1982, the yacht was operated for some years by Stephen, his son, as a charter vessel.

By the 1990s however, she was laying in the north of Scotland and had been on sale for several years. It was clear to her new owners that she would need some repair to her counter stern, together with very comprehensive replacement of equipment, systems and tanks. AMAZON was therefore prepared and equipped for sea and made a successful passage in the spring of 1997 from Buckie Shipyard, where she had been inspected, through the Caledonian Canal and from Fort William via Falmouth, and Gibraltar to Malta.

Based at Malta since 1997, AMAZON has undergone necessary repairs, systems overhaul and comprehensive equipment replacement. In 1999 her bottom was stripped and cleaned off, re-caulked and re-coppered. A continuous heavy duty marine diesel engine was fitted. Departing Malta in early 2009, AMAZON undertook a trans-Atlantic passage via Gibralta, the Canary Islands, the Cape Verde Islands and Barbados, continue to St Vincent and the Grenadines, Antigua and Barbuda, Bermuda and the USA; she was 124 years old. In 2011, she made her return trans-Atlantic passage from the USA and via Halifax, Nova Scotia and St John's, Newfoundland, to Ireland.

AMAZON has the distinctly unique privilege of having been present for both the 1897 and the 2012 Diamond Jubilee maritime festivities.

This vessel is a survivor from the First World War. You can read more about her wartime history by visiting our First World War: Britain's Surviving Vessels website www.ww1britainssurvivingvessels.org.uk. 

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