Several years ago, Paul Madden surveyed the classic yacht SS Delphine at a shipyard in Portugal on behalf of a client from Singapore, and that is the basis of this Yacht Review.
The vessel was commissioned by the US automobile magnate Horace Dodge. Delphine was built at the Great Lakes Engineering Works in Michigan during 1920 at a cost of US$20 million. At 78.5 metres overall, she was launched in 1921, and remains today the largest yacht ever built in the US that is still in operation. Her Tiffany-designed interior was lavish. Dodge never got to enjoy the luxury yacht he had created. He died in December 1919 at just 52 years old, just prior to the yacht’s launch.
In 1926, the yacht caught fire in New York and sank. Horace Dodge’s widow Anna, funded the five-year recovery and rebuild process at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. During the Second World War she was requisitioned and pressed into duty as USS Dauntless PG61. Stripped of her lavish interior furnishings, she became the flagship of Admiral Ernest King, Commander in Chief of the US Fleet and Chief of Naval Operations. Legend has it that President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Molotov and Winston Churchill enjoyed the hospitality the yacht had to offer, and it is said that the Yalta Treaty was drawn up in the vessel’s ornate smoking room.
After the war Anna Dodge bought the yacht back again. After a full refit, she fell onto hard times after the war years.
Delphine was donated to the Lundeberg Maryland Seamanship School in 1968, and for the next 20 years she was to serve as a training ship for US merchant seamen. By the 1990’s, she was left to rot in a Marseilles shipyard. In 1997, the Belgian jeans magnate, Jacques Bruynooghe fell in love with historic yacht and Delphine was towed to Belgium, where she underwent a full restorative rebuild.
Over the six-year refit period, Jacques invested over €35m bringing Delphine back. Museum archives were scoured for original blueprints to ensure that the engineering and architectural refit precisely matched the original design. He fit powerful bow and stern thrusters. A powerful hydraulically-driven stern thruster pod can swivel 360 degrees and provide full in-harbour manoeuvrability.
In 2003 with a full ISM system in place she arrived in her new homeport of Monaco and entered into her into life as a charter yacht. In 2007 she sailed to Montenegro to take a starring role in the Hollywood production of the movie The Brothers Bloom, starring Rachel Weisz and Adrian Brody.
Where the typical 80 metre motor yacht burns 250 gallons an hour, SS Delphine burns 66 gallons. Her steam engines have been proved reliable without the noise and vibrations associated with the diesel engines. And the steam engines are environmentally-friendly. Twin propellers, each 2 metres tall, are powered using 20,000 litres of water converted into superheated vapour pressure.
Delphine is now 100 years old and cruising the Med!
Xplorer Yachts specializes in the conversion of commercial and government vessels into global expedition yachts. We source our vessels directly from vessel owners in Europe and the U.S. and currently have over 50 vessels we are showing as ‘available’ for conversion. As ‘Owners Rep’ we assist in all aspects of the design, purchase of vessel, shipyard bidding and project management. We operate in Europe and the U.S. Direct contact: PM@XplorerYachts.com. More information regarding expedition yachts, go to http://XplorerYachts.com
