The Court of the Last Tsar: Pomp, Power, and Pageantry in the Reign of Nicholas II by Greg King

Author:Greg King [Greg King]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-01-08T05:00:00+00:00

Standart

But above all other vessels, Nicholas II preferred Standart, commissioned from Copenhagen’s Burmeister and Wain Shipyard in 1893. The public rooms were nearly twice as large as those on Polar Star, and no expense was spared in its construction. Alexander III died before the ship was finished, and it was not until September 1896 that Nicholas II took possession during a visit to Denmark.³³ By the time construction had finished, Standart had cost 4 million rubles; it was the largest, most expensive, and most luxurious private yacht in the world.³⁴

Kaiser Wilhelm II, whose smaller white and gold yacht Hohenzollern had been converted from a military destroyer, once told Nicholas he would be proud to receive such a fine vessel as a gift. This rather unsubtle hint prompted the dowager empress to write to her son: “I am sure the beautiful lines of Standart would be an eyesore to Wilhelm. Still, his joke about how happy he would be if the yacht were given to him was in very doubtful taste. I hope he will not have the cheek to order himself a similar one here, this really would be the limit, though just like him.”³⁵ More diplomatically, the prince of Wales requested plans, and their study certainly influenced the design of the new British royal yacht Victoria and Albert III, launched in May of 1899.

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