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Lot Essay
The Greta depicted here was the sixth and last in a succession of handsome steam yachts designed by John Scott (IV), Chairman of Scott's of Greenock, and built in the company's own yards on the Clyde for the Scott family's personal use. The first Greta dated from 1876 whilst the final one, dating from 1898, was exactly double her length and almost seven times her displacement tonnage. This last Greta was registered at 292½ tons gross (138 net and 393 Thames) and measured 154 feet in length with a 22 foot beam. Rigged as a screw schooner, she was powered by one of Scott's own triple-expansion 4-cylinder 340hp. engines giving her a speed of 12 knots and, like all her five predecessors, was coveted by many of Scott's commercial clients thanks to the care and attention which had been lavished upon her.
After John Scott IV's death in 1903, Greta passed into the ownership of Sir William Agnew although by 1914 she was owned by Camper & Nicholsons Ltd., the yacht builders of Gosport and Southampton. Hired by the government for wartime service on 8th October 1914, she was armed with a 12pdr. gun and employed on the auxiliary patrol until released in March 1919. Last recorded in 1921 as the property of Mr. Thomas Rees, Lloyd's Yacht Register of that year contains the rather enigmatic notation that Greta was "no longer a yacht".
After John Scott IV's death in 1903, Greta passed into the ownership of Sir William Agnew although by 1914 she was owned by Camper & Nicholsons Ltd., the yacht builders of Gosport and Southampton. Hired by the government for wartime service on 8th October 1914, she was armed with a 12pdr. gun and employed on the auxiliary patrol until released in March 1919. Last recorded in 1921 as the property of Mr. Thomas Rees, Lloyd's Yacht Register of that year contains the rather enigmatic notation that Greta was "no longer a yacht".