Lord Brassey's steam yacht Sunbeam off Naples

Sunbeam, 227 tons, was probably the most famous of all the auxiliary steam yachts of the late Victorian era. Built for Mr Thomas (later Lord) Brassey by Bowdler & Chaffers of Seacombe in 1874, she was 159 foot long and rigged as a three-masted topsail schooner. Continually in use by the Brasseys for forty-two years, her most memorable cruise was their celebrated round-the-world voyage in 1876-77 about which Lady Brassey wrote her best selling book Voyages in the Sunbeam. Other cruises included three to the U.S.A., three to India and two to Australia but there were also countless shorter trips within European and Mediterranean waters. In 1916, in order to help the War effort, Lord Brassey loaned Sunbeam to the Royal Indian Marine for use as a hospital ship. Returned to him after the Great War, she was subsequently sold to Lord Runciman who sailed her until she was finally scrapped in 1929 after a remarkable life of fifty-five years.