The Royal Yacht Squadron's steam yacht Sapphire cruising in the Mediterranean off Naples

One of the last really grand steam yachts of the era before the Great War, Sapphire was designed by G.L. Watson & Co. and built in John Brown's Clydebank yards in 1912. Ordered by Herbrand, 11th Duke of Bedford, to replace his existing Sapphire, her successor was registered at 1,207 tons gross (546 net and 1,421 Thames) and measured 251½ feet in length with a 35 foot beam. Capable of 14 knots, she was sumptuously fitted out and had a highly distinctive profile which made her instantly recognisable wherever she went. Although nominally owned by the Bedfords until 1919, she spent most of the Great War as an armed auxiliary patrol yacht until released by the Admiralty whereupon she was sold to Lord Furness who kept her until 1923. She was then sold to Urban Broughton (later Lord Fairhaven) under whose colours she became a familiar sight practically worldwide due to her owner's enthusiasm for ocean cruising. When the Second World War began in 1939, she was purchased initially as a convoy leader but then became a submarine tender in Campbeltown Loch in 1940 under the name of H.M.S. Breda. Still there in 1944, she was accidentally sunk in a collision on 18^th February but not deemed worth raising.