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s.y. WARRIOR  

 

WARRIOR: Official Number: 15052. International Signal Code: G.Z.Z.Z.

Builder: Ailsa Shipbuilding Company

Launched: Thursday, 04/02/1904

Gross Tonnage: 1,098. Later 1,124 tons; Length: 298.7ft; Beam: 32.7ft; Draught: 17ft.

Propulsion: Steam twin triple expansion T3cylinder 15-knot 2-screw. Later altered by A & J Inglis to twin 4-cylinder triple expansion 314nhp.

 

Designed by G.L. Watson and built at Troon in 1904 for Frederick W. Vanderbilt, grandson of American shipping and railroad tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt, Warrior was considered one of the finest steam yachts ever constructed.  Luxuriously appointed with six guest staterooms she regularly cruised in the Mediterranean and around the coasts of the United States.

Twice commissioned by the Royal Navy, she participated in both World Wars as well as in the Spanish Civil War, and was sunk by enemy bombing off Portland 11 July 1940.

 

She is included here as Ernest Brown (of a Wivenhoe/Fingringhoe family) was a crew member.... and where there was one local man on board there were usually others.  Ernest sent postcards to his sister Rosa from all over the world and appears to have joined the Warrior in 1909. As Warrior flew the American flag at this time there are no crew lists in British or Canadian archives.

WARRIOR immediately after her launch at Troon

This postcard of the Warrior, sent by Ernest Brown to his sister Rosa from Genoa 17 April 1909, states that they are leaving the following day for Algiers, Tangier, Gibraltar, Canary Islands, and Havre.

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