The Royal Yacht Squadron steam yacht Cuhona at sea

Designed by St. Clare J. Byrne of Liverpool and launched from Earle's yard at Hull in 1882, Cuhona was a large three-masted iron schooner built for Sir Andrew Barclay Walker, the immensely wealthy Liverpool philanthropist who, amongst many other benefactions, built the Walker Art Gallery and presented it to his native city in 1877. Registered at 344 tons gross (234 net & 498 Thames), Cuhona measured 163½ feet in length with a 26 foot beam and travelled widely with her first owner until his death in 1893. Initially sold to Walter Bailey, J.P., also of Liverpool, she was thereafter resold several more times before passing into the hands of H.H. Prince Aziz Pacha Hassan of Alexandria in the early 1900s; he kept her until at least 1910 after which date she disappears from record.

A particularly fine watercolour of Cuhona entering the Venetian Lagoon by Sir Oswald Walters Brierly was sold in these rooms, 25 May 2005, lot 463.