Posted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on November 10, 2003 at 16:48:53 from 195.93.32.7 user ACB.
In Reply to: Re: "Riddle" on the Radio posted by Jonathan Labaree on November 10, 2003 at 14:52:53:
The friend was Sir Walter Runciman, 1847 - 1947, Master Mariner, shipowner, MP for Hartlepool, author ("Collier Brigs and their Sailors") and yachtsman in the grand manner - he owned the Sunbeam II, an auxiliary three masted schooner of 659 tons, length 195 feet, max. draft 16'10" and sail area 12,700 sq.
I think this would have been big enough for Carruthers to lounge about on in a deck chair!
Childers did own what most of us mere mortals would consider a fairly grand yacht - the rather splendid ketch "Asgard" (the vessel with which he undertook the gun running episode in 1914) which was given to him as a wedding present by his parents-in-law - his father in law, Dr Hamilton Osgood, was a weathly Bostonian and a keen yachtsman himself.
The Asgard was built for Childers by Colin Archer, one of the most famous designers and builders of the day, in Larvik, Norway and whilst not on the Sunbeam II scale she is 49ft LOA and her Thames tonnage is 28. A big boat.