FAMOUS YACHTS AT AUCTION

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 58, 1 December 1917, Page 12

FAMOUS YACHTS AT AUCTION

WHITE HEATHER'S VALUABLE KEEL. At tho Baltic Shipping Exchange recently the Margherita, described as the "fastest schooner in Europe," was offered at auction, but after £10,000 had been bid was withdrawn from the sale. There are 95} tons of lead ballast in tho keel, which, at tho present prico of £30 a ton, would alone bo worth about £2900. The schooner belongs to Mr. G. Cecil Whitakcr, and was specially built to race Against the Kaiser's Meteor and Herr Krupp's Gormania, and proved herself to be much the fastest vessel

The auction yesterday was confined to persons entitled to own a British ship, but it will be romemhered that when tho Gormania was offered at auction in London in May last jib a prize ship neutrals wore also.allowed to bid. The Gormania was then bought by Captain' Haunevig, of _ Messrs'. Hannovig Bros., ship and insurance brokers, of Christiania, London, and New York, for £10,000, and /Mr. H. G. Kellock stated yesterday that he understood she had since been-resold for "a great deal moro money." We understand that the present owner of tho Gormania. is a Norwegian resident in New York.

After the Mnrgherita had been withdrawn, the racing cutter Whit© Heather IT, which was owned hy the late Mr. Myles B. Kennedy, was offered, and % £3150 was nought by Messrs. George Cohen, Sons, and Co., ship breakers and scrap iron merchants. She is of 179 tons v.trt., was built l>v Messrs. W. Fife and Sons in 1007, and in her first three seasons won £2745 and <i' large..number of trophies, ■ including'two .King's Cuns. The keel contains 63 tons of lead, worth about £1900, and the cutter is described as "ono of the most perfectly equipped racing yachts afloat." Then the wooden auxiliary yacht Moina, whose keel and copper lias been removed, was bought by Mr. John Macintosh, coaling contractor, of Gibraltar, for £950 after a first bid had been made of £500.