29 April 2021 14:00 Business
Rebecca Smurthwaite
Following the recent death of His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, rumour has it that the British Government wants to construct a new Royal Yacht in Prince Philip s honour. With an estimated cost of £200 million, the news has certainly caused a splash.
SuperYacht Times takes a look at the history of the
Royal Yacht Britannia and its impressive superstructure, while noting new design concepts from the likes of Winch Design about a successor yacht, about which rumours have abounded for some time.
Following the decommission in 1939 of the
Victoria & Albert III,
Britannia’s predecessor and first Royal Yacht not powered by sail, it was decided that a new Royal Yacht should be commissioned to travel the globe in both tropic and arctic waters, whilst doubling as a hospital ship in case of war.
The 91-metre steamship
Nahlin has just celebrated her 91st year afloat and was seen this week taking refuge in Falmouth, Cornwall. Launched on the 28th April 1930, the steamship, previously named
Libertatea, was designed by the Scotish firm
G. L. Watson & Co and built in Clyde, Scotland, by John Brown & Co. The last time
Nahlin was seen in Falmouth, she was mounted aboard a cargo ship en route to the beginnings of her restoration work in 1999.
Photo: Giovanni RomeroThe extraordinary motor yacht was part of a fifteen year campaign to rescue the steamship from dilapidation in Romania, in which her designers G. L. Watson & Co, were the major instigator. Nicholas Edmiston and a yachtsman named William Collier discovered the vessel in dire straits, and after 15 years of negotiation, returned the vessel to the United Kingdom in 1999.
THE Luftwaffe bombers had long since returned to their Continental bases, their nights’ work done. On Clydeside, rescue squads were clawing without cease at the pulverised remains of houses, searching for survivors amidst scenes of surreal, unending horror. Busloads of people were already making their way to the area, looking for parents, relatives, lovers, fearful of what they might find. Among them was Mary A. Carson, the editor of the Women s Topic pages in this newspaper since 1931, whose nom de plume was Jean Kelvin. “We have walked along those devastated streets,” she subsequently wrote, “crunching all the time over littered glass speedily being swept into the gutters. We have seen those shattered modest homes. If one looked for it, no doubt there was the lighter side – two children dancing unconcernedly on a novel stage, the cleared and windowless frontage of a shop; and the incongruous, those odd personal items standing still intact before gaping walls”.
PREMIUM
The collapse of retail groups such as Debenhams and Arcadia has left vacant properties across the UK By Kristy Dorsey The availability of vacant office and retail space across Scotland is now rising at the strongest rate recorded since the global financial crisis in what one chartered surveyor described simply as a “toxic” market. The findings from the latest commercial property market survey by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) highlights the difficulties facing Scotland’s high streets, with another surveyor based in Edinburgh warning of “doom” unless vaccines are successful in wiping out the coronavirus. In addition to high levels of vacant premises, RICS also noted that falling demand for retail and office space has not shown any signs of easing.