Cleopatra's Barge
1818 painting by George Ropes in Peabody Essex Museum
|
|
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States
|
|
| Name: | Cleopatra's Barge |
| Owner: | George Crowninshield Jr. |
| Builder: |
|
| Cost: | $100,000 (including furnishings) |
| Launched: | October 21, 1816 |
| Completed: | December 1816 |
| Out of service: | November 1817 |
.svg){kind=small} Hawaii
|
|
| Acquired: | November 16, 1820 |
| Renamed: |
|
| Fate: | Wrecked 1824 |
| General characteristics | |
| Tons burthen: | 192 tons bm |
| Length: |
|
| Beam: | 23 ft (7.0 m) |
| Draught: | 11 ft (3.4 m) |
| Propulsion: | Sails |
| Sail plan: | Hermaphrodite brig |
Cleopatra's Barge was an opulent yacht built in Massachusetts in 1816. It became the Royal Yacht of King Kamehameha II who named it Haʻaheo o Hawaiʻi ("Pride of Hawaii"), but was wrecked in the Hawaiian Islands in 1824.
In the 18th century the Crowninshield family of Salem, Massachusetts had a thriving shipping business. In the War of 1812 one of their ships became a privateer. The elder George Crowninshield (born in 1733) died in 1815 and his son inherited the business. George Crowninshield Jr. (1766–1817) ordered a pleasure craft originally called the ship Car of Concordia. At registration he renamed it Cleopatra's Barge for the pleasure barge of Egyptian Queen Cleopatra VII, based on a passage in the play Antony and Cleopatra. It was built by Retire Becket of Salem and launched October 21, 1816.
The ship was 23 feet (7.0 m) wide and measured 192 tons. It had two masts in the configuration known as a hermaphrodite brig: square-rigged forward and schooner-rigged aft. This made it fast but required a relatively small crew. It cost about US$50,000 to build, and about the same amount was used on luxury furnishings. The main cabin was 19 feet (5.8 m) by 20 feet (6.1 m), with mahogany panels inlaid with other decorative wood. Furniture was covered in red velvet with gold lace, and the kitchen included custom silver, china, and formal glassware. The starboard side was painted in colorful horizontal stripes, and the port side a herring-bone pattern. It even boasted indoor plumbing.
On December 6, 1816, the ship was opened for public tours, and it became a popular attraction for thousands of people. After a one-day trial sail, an unusually cold winter froze the ship into dock for the winter. On January 14, 1817, the Salem Gazette reported:
...
Wikipedia