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Lot Essay
Despite twenty years of service with the Royal Navy, the brig Pantaloon started her career as the private cruising yacht of the 4th Duke of Portland. Like a number of other so-called 'yachts' created for some of the early members of the Royal Yacht Squadron, her rig and general appearance were far more reminiscent of a ship-of-war than a pleasure craft and it is often forgotten that one of the main sailing objectives of these R.Y.S. pioneers was to improve the form and sailing qualities of contemporary warships rather than winning the annual regatta at Cowes.
The 4th Duke of Portland was one of the most enthusiastic of these innovators and asked a fellow-member of the R.Y.S., Captain J.C. Symonds, R.N., to design him a brig-rigged yacht which he christened Pantaloon. Built at Troon, she was measured at 323 tons and was 90 feet in length with a 29 foot beam. Completed during 1831, she joined Admiral Sir Edward Codrington's squadron on its Channel cruise that summer and proved so successful alongside the warships that the Admiralty afterwards persuaded the Duke to sell them Pantaloon so that she could be used as a prototype brig for the fleet. Commissioned into the Navy and armed with ten guns in December the same year (1831), she spent twenty years on active service around the world until finally broken up in August 1852, her most notable encounter being the capture of the pirate ship Borboleta off Lagos, West Africa in May 1845.
Built by White's at Cowes, the 334-ton Waterwitch measured 90½ feet in length with a 29½ foot beam and was completed in 1832. Rigged as a brig but designed with the lines of a racing thoroughbred, Waterwitch joined the Royal Navy's Experimental Squadron off Cork that autumn for her trials and outsailed everything the navy could field against her. So successful was she that the press demanded she be bought for the fleet but the Admiralty stubbornly refused to take up the challenge. The immediate result was that Waterwitch spent most of 1833 outsailing every warship which entered the Solent whilst the Admiralty procrastinated and Lord Belfast's patience became exhausted. At the start of the 1834 Season, Belfast had her interior refitted as a yacht and in September challenged Mr. C.R.M. Talbot to a race that would clinch Waterwitch's reputation. The race, arguably the first ocean contest anywhere in the world and with a prize of 1,000 guineas, was to be over a 224-mile course from the Nab to the Eddystone Lighthouse and back. Talbot's boat, the 190-ton schooner Galatea got away well and rounded the lighthouse ahead of her rival but on the return leg, Waterwitch overhauled her and won by twenty-five minutes. It was a remarkable victory for a full-bodied brig with a square rig and the Admiralty made an instant decision they were not to regret. Bought by the Royal Navy in October 1834, H.M.S. Waterwitch retained her name in the fleet and proved a model of her kind until sold into retirement in 1861.
A prolific painter of ships' portraits and naval battles, William John Huggins served with the East India Company on board the Perseverance, sailing to Bombay and China in 1812. On his return, two years later, he established himself as a marine painter, exhibiting regularly at the R.A. and, in 1836, becoming Marine Painter to William IV.
The 4th Duke of Portland was one of the most enthusiastic of these innovators and asked a fellow-member of the R.Y.S., Captain J.C. Symonds, R.N., to design him a brig-rigged yacht which he christened Pantaloon. Built at Troon, she was measured at 323 tons and was 90 feet in length with a 29 foot beam. Completed during 1831, she joined Admiral Sir Edward Codrington's squadron on its Channel cruise that summer and proved so successful alongside the warships that the Admiralty afterwards persuaded the Duke to sell them Pantaloon so that she could be used as a prototype brig for the fleet. Commissioned into the Navy and armed with ten guns in December the same year (1831), she spent twenty years on active service around the world until finally broken up in August 1852, her most notable encounter being the capture of the pirate ship Borboleta off Lagos, West Africa in May 1845.
Built by White's at Cowes, the 334-ton Waterwitch measured 90½ feet in length with a 29½ foot beam and was completed in 1832. Rigged as a brig but designed with the lines of a racing thoroughbred, Waterwitch joined the Royal Navy's Experimental Squadron off Cork that autumn for her trials and outsailed everything the navy could field against her. So successful was she that the press demanded she be bought for the fleet but the Admiralty stubbornly refused to take up the challenge. The immediate result was that Waterwitch spent most of 1833 outsailing every warship which entered the Solent whilst the Admiralty procrastinated and Lord Belfast's patience became exhausted. At the start of the 1834 Season, Belfast had her interior refitted as a yacht and in September challenged Mr. C.R.M. Talbot to a race that would clinch Waterwitch's reputation. The race, arguably the first ocean contest anywhere in the world and with a prize of 1,000 guineas, was to be over a 224-mile course from the Nab to the Eddystone Lighthouse and back. Talbot's boat, the 190-ton schooner Galatea got away well and rounded the lighthouse ahead of her rival but on the return leg, Waterwitch overhauled her and won by twenty-five minutes. It was a remarkable victory for a full-bodied brig with a square rig and the Admiralty made an instant decision they were not to regret. Bought by the Royal Navy in October 1834, H.M.S. Waterwitch retained her name in the fleet and proved a model of her kind until sold into retirement in 1861.
A prolific painter of ships' portraits and naval battles, William John Huggins served with the East India Company on board the Perseverance, sailing to Bombay and China in 1812. On his return, two years later, he established himself as a marine painter, exhibiting regularly at the R.A. and, in 1836, becoming Marine Painter to William IV.