Description:The Leveson-Gower family owned a number of yachts from the late 1840s onwards, including yachts called the Ondine and the Catania which they took on many foreign voyages and a new yacht which they were in the process of acquiring in 1899. The family’s yachts were luxurious, providing a glamorous mode of transport and a lavish leisure pursuit.
Documents in the Sutherland Papers tell us about the costs involved in yachting in the mid to late nineteenth century, indicating the furnishing of the yachts and the facilities on board. Documents such as charters and letters provide an insight into leisure culture at this time, with the family’s yachts being hired for private use by other wealthy enthusiasts.
The Fourth Duke of Sutherland’s New Yacht
Correspondence between the secretaries of Cromartie Sutherland-Leveson-Gower (1851-1913) the fourth Duke of Sutherland, refers to the building of a luxurious new yacht for the Duke and his family. Henry Wright wrote a letter to Alexander Simpson the fourth Duke’s private secretary about the Duke’s new yacht in 1899. Wright informs Simpson that ‘the yacht ought to be an A1 vessel when completed’. Wright speculates that estimates for the yacht would probably be ‘exceeded’, adding that considering the ‘furnishing’ for the yacht, the cost ‘will run into a few thousands more’.
Wright estimated that the yacht would cost over £100,000 ‘the machinery alone being over £40,000’. Wright remarks that yacht itself weighed 1500 tons ‘and goes about 20 miles an hour’.
To learn more about the family's yachts, click on the images on the left.