Not to be confused with the famous tea clipper, the private steam yacht Cutty Sark was built, from plates originally destined for an S class destroyer, by Yarrow and Co Ltd of Scotstoun for Major Henry Keswick (1870–1928) of Jardine's.
The route followed was through the Mediterranean to the Far East, arriving in Hong Kong on 20 January 1921, and finally leaving Yokohama for home via Panama on 25 May 1921.
She was captained by Lieutenant Commander Richard Herbert Mack RN (Retd) who had been mentioned in despatches during World War I.
[1] In Noël Coward's play, Private Lives, set on the Riviera, in the first-act balcony scene Amanda asks; "Whose yacht is that?"
During this period she hosted many famous people including the Churchills, Coco Chanel, and, in September 1935, the Prince of Wales and Wallis Simpson.
They took a short cruise to Corsica with, among others, Katherine Rogers, John Aird, Gladys Buist, Helen Fitzgerald and Lord Sefton.
After the ceremony, the happy couple made their way to Westminster Pier, from where the Duke piloted his bride by high speed launch to the Cutty Sark, moored at Deptford.
On the outbreak of war in September 1939 the Cutty Sark was requisitioned by the Admiralty, still captained by Cdr Mack, and sent to Thorneycroft's at Southampton to be fitted out and armed as an Anti-Submarine vessel.
Her war service was mainly routine escort work, and she is mentioned several times in this capacity in Edward Young's book, One of Our Submarines.
The original intention was to call her Tarshish, but a decision was taken to name her after Joseph Hertz 1872–1946, Chief Rabbi of the British Commonwealth 1913–1946.
To raise funds for the enterprise, the League held a concert of Jewish Music at the Royal Albert Hall on 5 February 1946 with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Anatole Fistoulari.