Rover (yacht)

Short description: Steam-powered yacht built by Alexander Stephen and Sons

History
United Kingdom
Name| Rover
Builder| Alexander Stephen and Sons, River Clyde, Scotland, UK
Renamed| Southern Cross, Orizaba (1939)
Fate| Scrapped c. 1960
General characteristics
Class and type:|  Steam yacht
Tonnage:|  2,115 Thames Measurement[1]
Length:|  266 ft 5 in (81.20 m)
Beam:|  40 ft 4 in (12.3 m)
Draught:|  20 ft (6.1 m)
Installed power:|  3,000 shp (2,200 kW)
Propulsion:|

* 2 × four crank triple expansion engines.
* 3 × 60-kilowatt (80 hp) turbo-generators

Speed:|  16 knots (30 km/h)

The Rover was a steam-powered yacht built in 1930 by Alexander Stephen and Sons in Glasgow, Scotland for Lord Inchcape, then chairman of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O). Built as Stephen's Yard No. 527, she was 265 feet 5 inches (80.90 m) long with a beam of 40 feet 1 inch (12.22 m) and a tonnage of 2,115, and was considered "the most luxurious ever built on the Clyde".[2]

## Contents

* 1 Description
* 2 Later career
* 3 References
* 4 External links
* 4.1 Photographs

## Description

The yacht's figurehead was a likeness of Lord Inchcape's daughter, Elsie Mackay, who disappeared whilst attempting to fly the Atlantic in 1928.[3] With accommodation for up to 14 guests, the yacht was painted green and white at launch with a predominantly silver-coloured dining room.[4]

The Rover's staterooms featured en-suite marbled bathrooms. Dancing and games were staged on the open decks. Long-distance fuel tanks permitted long round-the-world voyages. During Cowes Week in August 1930, she was visited by the then King George V and Queen Mary.[5]

## Later career

After Lord Inchcape's death aboard the Rover in Monte Carlo's harbour, Port Hercules in Monaco, on 23 May 1932,[6] rumours circulated that the Aga Khan would buy the yacht,[7] while a rumoured deal with King Carol II of Romania also fell through.[8] However, a year later she was bought by American businessman Howard Hughes unseen and renamed Southern Cross.[2][9] She was subsequently sold to Swedish entrepreneur Axel Wenner-Gren, under whose ownership she helped rescue survivors from the SS Athenia, the first ship to be sunk by Nazi Germany during World War II.[10]

The vessel subsequently served in the Mexican Navy as Orizaba until she was scrapped around 1960.[8]

## References

1. ↑ A Shipbuilding History. 1750-1932 (Alexander Stephen and Sons): Chapter 10
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Lord Inchcape's Yacht Bought By American". The Straits Times (Singapore Government). 21 December 1933. http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19331221-1.2.8.aspx.
3. ↑ "Lord Inchcape's Yacht Sold". Dundee Courier (British Newspaper Archive). 3 January 1933. http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000564/19330103/083/0005.
4. ↑ "Lord Inchcape's New Yacht". Portsmouth Evening News (British Newspaper Archive). 4 July 1930. http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000290/19300704/220/0010.
5. ↑ Stephen, Alexander, & Sons (1932). A Shipbuilding History, 1750-1932: A Record of the Business Founded, about 1750, by Alexander Stephen at Burghead, and Subsequently Carried on at Aberdeen, Arbroath, Dundee and Glasgow. A. Stephen & Sons Limited. https://books.google.com/books?id=g0IZAAAAIAAJ.
6. ↑ "Lord Inchcape". Hartlepool mail (British Newspaper Archive). 24 May 1932. http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000378/19320524/106/0004.
7. ↑ "Aga Khan to Buy Inchcape Yacht?". Edinburgh Evening News (British Newspaper Archive). 1 July 1932. http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000452/19320701/069/0007.
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Wisner, Bill (December 1975). "The Golden Age of Yachts". Motor Boating. https://books.google.com/books?id=RnSxbgpkVWoC&pg=PA27. Retrieved 23 September 2014.
9. ↑ "Film Producer Buys Yacht". Avalon, California: The Catalina Islander. 5 July 1933. http://cat.stparchive.com/Archive/CAT/CAT07051933P06.php.
10. ↑ Francis Carroll (2012). Athenia Torpedoed: The U-Boat Attack that Ignited the Battle of the Atlantic. Naval Institute Press. p. 65. ISBN 978-1-61251-155-9. https://books.google.com/books?id=4jo00zi_dTcC.

## External links

### Photographs

* Starboard broadside view
* "Owner's Room"

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