Lot Essay
Rigged as a twin-screw schooner, the Nahma was built for Mr. & Mrs. Robert Goelet of New York in 1896-7. Designed by the great G.L. Watson and built by J. & G. Thomson on the Clyde, she was registered at 1,740 tons gross (970 net) and measured 289 feet in length with a 36 foot beam. Powered by a pair of Thomson's triple-expansion engines, she could make 16 knots under steam and was a graceful vessel of perfect proportions. Owned by the Goelets until 1922, although used by the U.S. Navy during the Great War, she was sold three times in four years until settling down under British registry and the new name of Istar. After a brief but colourful episode running alcohol into the United States during the Prohibition era, she later became a shark oil factory ship and was broken up around 1936.