Show vrC GRiNS fiNE NfW YACHT BIGGEST AND > COSTLIEST SURE S-URE BOAT EVE1t BUILT Will Probably Be Called Prince Albert Al-bert and Its Fittings Surpass Anything Seen so Fur Queen Victoria may soon enjoy the pleasure of a cruise on her new yacht the largest ever built The new royal yacht the name for which has not yet been definitely chosen but which prob aby will be called the Prince Albert Is now so far advanced that It Is expected she will be launched next March The first keel plate was laid Dec 23 11837 j I at the government dockyard at Pembroke by Mrs Watson the wife of Captain Burgess Watson the superintendent superin-tendent of the dockyard with elaborate ceremony The British government has a remarkably re-markably welldeveloped faculty of keeping its business to itself The gates of the government dockyards rarely open even to British citizens and almost never to foreigners Consequently Conse-quently although all Englishmen in general and yachtsmen and naval architects In particular have been burning with curiosity to know what Queen Victorias new yacht will belike be-like ever since parliament appropriated money to build her nothing Is known about her except the meager detallsithe admiralty has seen fit to give out No eyes have seen her except the officers and workmen whOhuv businesailnthej + dockyard English curiosity became so clamorous clamor-ous a short time ago that the admiralty decided to depart from Its eclared policy pol-icy of maintaining absolute secrecy about the royal yacht so far as to give out some of the principal dimensions of the vessel The new yacht is to be SSO feet in length by 60 feet beam Her draught is to be 18 feet and her displacement is to be 4600 tons < This will be by far the biggest yacht ever built William K Vanderbilts yacht Valiant which has passed muster for a pretty goodstzed I yacht is small by comparison with Queen Victorians new pleasure craft i The Valiant is only 33tfeet long 39 feet 4 beam and 16 feet draught Her gross tonnage is 1823 Howard Goulds Niagara < 1 Niag-ara is still smaller being 272 feet in 1 length 35 feet beam and 16 feet draught The new royal yacht is as large as r the cruiser Baltimore larger than the New Orleans and much larger than the German emperors yacht Hohenzollern The Hohenzollern is nothing more than a protected cruiser armament protective protec-tive deck and ah with quarters fitted i up for the emperor The British royal yacht on the other hand will have none of the qualities of a cruiser but will be a yacht pure and simple The hull is to be of steel sheathed with wood and covered with copper She will be provided with double bottoms bot-toms She will have three funnels and two masts Speed is to be an important consideration consid-eration The admiralty has designed to inform British taxpayers that the yacht is to have two sets of tripleexpansion fourcylinder engines driving twin j I screws and having an indicated horsepower horse-power of 11000 The high pressure cylinder cyl-inder of each engine is to be 252 inches in diameter the Intermediate cylindet 44i inches in diameter and the twa low pressure cylinders C3 Inches in diameter all having a stroke of 39 Inches Steam will be supplied by 18 Belleville boilers working at a pressure pres-sure of 300 pounds which will be reduced re-duced at the engines to 250 pounds The grate area under the boilers wail be 840 feet and the heating surface will be 26000 square feet This machinery is expected to drive the vessel through the water at a speed of twenty knots an hour with the engines making 140 < revolutions a minute Recently progress on tho yacht was delayed by strikes but men are now working overtime to make up for It Only the best artisans to be found in the United Kingdom are employed The vessel will have orlop lower main upper and forecastle decks It is estimated that by the time Iho royal yacht is in the water aha will have cost 237533 Although no information concerning the arrangement fitting and furnishing furnish-ing of the interior has been given out it may reasonably be surmised that her majesty will be fairly comfortable onboard on-board since it is estimated that the finished yacht will cost 300000 or in round numbers 1500000 |