Steam yacht

The English steamboat entrepreneur George Dodd (1783–1827) used the term "steam yacht" to describe the steamer Thames, ex Duke of Argyle.

[13][14] In cooperation with the Scottish engineer Robert Napier, whose Govan, Glasgow yard built a number of them, Smith did much to improve the hull design of steam yachts.

Their trip was made famous by a book written and published by his wife Annie Brassey - A Voyage in the Sunbeam, our Home on the Ocean for Eleven Months.

Within a few years other yachts were built for owners with a similar sense of adventure, famously Lancashire Witch for Sir Thomas George Fermor-Hesketh, 7th Baronet and Wanderer for Charles Joseph Lambert.

These sailing yachts, with steam auxiliary power, were more expensive to build and run, but gave the owners the freedom to roam the world without necessarily planning their routes via the network of coaling stations in existence at this time.

This is closer to the original meaning of the word "yacht", coming from the Dutch term Jacht, describing a small, fast commercial vessel.

Commercial steam yachts were rarely as ornate or luxurious as their private counterparts, with simpler, more rugged lines and usually a more practical sailing rig.

The Aurora, Morning, Nimrod, Terra Nova and the Quest are all examples of commercial vessels that went on to become steam yachts used during the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.

Ernest Shackleton's ship Endurance and Roald Amundsen's Fram are unusual cases of vessels being purpose-built as icebreaking private steam yachts.

The Royal Navy used small numbers of steam yacht-type vessels from the Victorian era onwards to transport men and equipment in harbour, act as coastal escorts for larger ships and for training and exercises.

A fine example of the screw schooner is the 125-year-old British Amazon, built at Southampton in 1885 from designs by the renowned Dixon Kemp and still in use in the USA after crossing the Atlantic in 2009, although diesel-propelled since 1937.

[25] Aurora built by Alexander Stephen & Sons Ltd, Glasgow in 1876 (a former whaling-yacht turned Antarctic exploration vessel) is a notable example of the class, as are the Victorian era yachts used by European monarchs, such as the HMY Victoria and Albert III and the SMY Hohenzollern.