Sunbeam

An aux. three-masted top-sail composite schooner built in 1874 by Bowdler, Chaffer & Co., Seacombe, to the design of St. C. Byrne. Dimensions 190'×38'4"×25' and tonnage 334 GRT, 227 NRT and 532 tons Thames Measurement. Equipped with a 64 nhp aux. 2-cylinder compound steam engine from Laird Brothers, Birkenhead.

1874: Launched at the shipyard of Bowdler, Chaffer & Co., Seacombe, for Lord Brassey. Assigned the Official British Reg. No. 70573.
1876 July 6 - May 26: Sailed from Cowes around the world and back.
1876 September 28: Saved the crew of the coal-laden barque Monkshaven of Whitby which had caught fire off Rio de la Plata. The Monkshaven was 68 days out of Swansea on voyage to Valparaiso at that time. Lady Brassey gives the name of the captain of the Monkshaven as "Runciman". The Monkshaven was a wooden barque of 657 tons which had been built by Smales, Whitby, in 1873.
1905: Participated in the trans-Atlantic race, in which she finished in sixth place.
1916: Lent to the Royal Indian Marine as a hospital ship for the army and later lent to the Admiralty.
c1918: Passed to Henry Leonard Brassey after the death of Earl Brassey on 1918, February 23.
1920: Presented to Devitt & Moore's Ocean Training Ships Ltd. Sailed from Bombay to Plymouth where she arrived in July 1920, but was never used as a sailing training ship.
1922: Sold to Sir Walter Runciman & Co., Ltd., Newcastle and used as a private yacht.
1928: Transferred to Sir Walter Runciman.
1930: Sold to Messrs. Thomas Ward Ltd., Morecambe, to be broken up.

References:

Schooners, general references.
Brassey, Annie: A voyage in the Sunbeam. Our home on the ocean for eleven months.
Longmans, Green, London, 1878. 8vo, 504 pp.
Brassey, Annie: Around the world in the yacht Sunbeam. Our home on the ocean for eleven months.
H. Holt & Co., New York, 1878. 8vo, xii, 479 pp, ill., fold. map.
Brassey, Annie: Sunshine and storm in the East. Or cruises to Cyprus and Constantinople.
Longmans, Green & Co., London, 1880. 8vo, xx, 448 pp, ill., 11 plates, 2 fold. maps.
Brassey, Annie: In the Trades, the Tropics and the Roaring Forties. 14,000 miles in the Sunbeam in 1883.
Longmans, Green & Co., London, 1885. 8vo, xiv, 532 pp, ill., 9 plates, 2 fold. maps.
Brassey, Annie: Three voyages in the Sunbeam.
Longmans, Green & Co., London, 1889. 4to, 192 pp, ill.
Brassey, Annie: The Last voyage, to India and Australia, in the Sunbeam.
Longmans, Green & Co., London, 1889. 8vo, xxiv, 490 pp, ill., plates, maps.
Brassey, Thomas: Voyages and travels of Lord Brassey, KCB, DCL, from 1862-1894.
Longmans, Green & Co., London, 1895. 2 vols in 8vo. Edited by S. Eardley-Wilmot.
Brassey, Thomas: The Sunbeam RYS. Voyages and experiences in many waters, naval reserves and other matters.
J. Murray, London, 1917. 8vo, 449 pp.
Brassey, Thomas: Log book of Sunbeam RYS. Ocean yacht race, Sandy Hook to the Lizard, for the German Emperor's cup, 1905.
T. Brassey, 1905. 8vo, 27 pp.
Runciman, Walter: Sunbeam, 1922-1934. A private log.
8 vols in the library of the NMM. The log of the Sunbeam, 1922-1928, and of the Sunbeam II, 1930-1934.

Updated 1998-01-21 by Lars Bruzelius

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