SALEROOM

ELDRED’S When speed was king

In today’s super yacht arms race size is everything, but more than a century early it was speed that was king for America’s industrial and fi nance barons who raced along Long Island Sound to their Wall Street eyries in extreme “commuter yachts.”

In 1900 millionaire CR Flint, who founded the company that would later become IBM, commissioned the aptly named Arrow. With her extreme proportions – length 132ft, beam a mere 12ft 6in and 3ft 6in draft – the 10,000hp projectile set a new world waterspeed record of 45.06mph in 1903. It was the last steam-powered vessel to do so and held the record until 1911.

In the decades that followed, until the world of Gatsby-era excess crumbled in the Wall Street of crash of 1929, millionaires competed to up the ante further with Cornelius Vanderbilt commissioning a commuter yacht with the specifi cation that it would be smooth enough to allow him to shave at 50mph without nicking himself.

Arrow no longer survives, but this important and rare model by HE Boucher, which was likely made for CR Flint, emerged in August at Eldred’s where it was expected to fetch $5,000-8,000.

ELDRED’S Below: Arrow captured in 1903 during 45mph speed trial, with owner CR Flint inset

BONHAMS

Above: £5 signing-on bounty o ered in this 18th-century recruitment poster (sold at Bonhams, £3,187) opened up a world of pain courtesy of this vicious cat o’ nine tails sold at Charles Miller Ltd for £2,730 Once they’d signed on, British sailors did indeed fi nd the Royal Navy lived up to this 18th-century recruitment poster promise that “they will meet with every Encouragement.”

One such motivator known as the “sailor’s friend” had a 250g lead head covered in knotted twine, though an improved model with 700g of lead proved even more encouraging. For those who struggled to rise from the comfort of their cockroach-infested hammock, a friendly tap with a “bosun’s starter,” with its handy whip shaft and lead ball, generally did the trick. Other means of persuasion included the good old whalebone cosh, but the last resort was the cat o’ nine tails.

In today’s gentler times, these quaint relics are much appreciated both by collectors and enthusiasts for certain of the more adventurous parlour games popular in many metropolitan areas.

Charles Miller Ltd’s next marine sale, 2 November Bonhams’ next marine sale, 6 October

BONHAMS/CHARLES MILLER LTD Art of naval persuasion

Left: Whalebone cosh (£310) and right sailor’s friend (£285)

CHARLES MILLER LTD

ELDRED’S How ‘faking it’ saved lives at sea

It looks like a knitting machine or loom, but the “faking box” was an important bit of life-saving kit employed by the US coastguard in the late 19th and early 20th century. Up to 600m of line was wound in zig zags over the pins, then the box was turned out leaving the rope neatly fl aked in readiness to be fi red at vessels in distress. This example was expected to fetch $2,000-3,000.

ELDRED’S ELDRED’S