MY ''Shemara'' is a

motor yacht A yacht is a sailing or power vessel used for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a , as opposed to a , such a pleasu ...

built in 1938 by John I. Thornycroft & Company to the order of

Bernard Docker Sir Bernard Dudley Frank Docker (9 August 1896 – 22 May 1978) was an English industrialist. Born in Edgbaston, Birmingham, he was the only child of Frank Dudley Docker, an English businessman and financier. Career Docker was the managing dir ...

. Between 1939 and 1946 she served in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

as HMS ''Shemara''. , ''Shemara'' is owned by

Charles Dunstone Sir Charles William Dunstone (born 21 November 1964) is the British co-founder and former chairman of mobile phone retailer Carphone Warehouse, former chairman of multinational electrical and telecommunications retailer and services company Dix ...

, and is available for charter. She can carry 18 guests and 16 crew, is in length and in beam, and has a maximum speed of .

History

The English industrialist

commissioned John I. Thornycroft & Company to build a yacht to his specifications. The yacht was built at Thornycroft's yard at

Woolston Woolston may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Woolston, Cheshire, a village and civil parish in Warrington * Woolston, Devon, on the list of United Kingdom locations: Woof-Wy near Kingsbridge, Devon * Woolston, Southampton, a city suburb in Ham ...

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

. She was completed in 1938 and christened MY ''Shemara''. MY ''Shemara'' was requisitioned by the

at the start of the Second World War in 1939 and used as a training vessel for anti-submarine warfare. (See also

Madiz ''Madiz'' is a 57 metre twin screw steel yacht built on the River Clyde in Scotland, in 1902. In 2006, she broke a record in the shipping industry by being the only ship in the world to be in class "+100A1" with Lloyd's Register of Shipping, 100 ...

, a similar super yacht that saw RN Service in WWII). It was during a training exercise with HMS ''Shemara'' that the submarine HMS ''Untamed'' was lost with all her crew. ''Shemara'' left Royal Navy service in 1946. Once returned to Docker's ownership, the ''Shemara'' became known for lavish parties with guests including

King Farouk of Egypt Farouk I (; ar, فاروق الأول ''Fārūq al-Awwal''; 11 February 1920 – 18 March 1965) was the tenth ruler of Egypt from the Muhammad Ali dynasty and the penultimate King of Egypt and the Sudan, succeeding his father, Fuad I, in 19 ...

. However in 1965, Docker put her on the market for £600,000, and she was eventually sold to the property developer

Harry Hyams Harry John Hyams (2 January 1928 – 19 December 2015) was a British millionaire who initially made his money as a speculative property developer. He was best known as the developer of the Centre Point office building in London. Early life Hyam ...

for £290,000. Hyams used the ''Shemara'' on a number of

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

cruises, but she was largely left laid up in

Lowestoft Lowestoft ( ) is a coastal town and civil parish in the East Suffolk district of Suffolk, England.OS Explorer Map OL40: The Broads: (1:25 000) : . As the most easterly UK settlement, it is north-east of London, north-east of Ipswich and sou ...

, and was not regularly used between the 1980s and 2010. In 2010 ''Shemara'' was bought by businessman

, and a project was started to return her to her former glory. In order to achieve this, a new company,

Shemara Refit LLP The Wight Shipyard is a shipbuilding company and shipyard based in East Cowes on the Isle of Wight in the UK, with their facilities occupying and including the historic Saunders-Roe flying boat hangar. The company was originally known as Shemara ...

, was created. The refit was completed in 2014, and the yacht now has a contemporary interior while retaining many of her historic original features, including as much of her original steel and teak as possible. The ship's machinery was completely replaced with a new

Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: * Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles * Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...

diesel-electric system comprising five main generators providing power for two electrically driven

azimuthing pod An azimuth thruster is a configuration of marine propellers placed in pods that can be rotated to any horizontal angle (azimuth), making a rudder unnecessary. These give ships better maneuverability than a fixed propeller and rudder system. Ty ...

s and a

bow thruster Manoeuvering thruster (bow thruster or stern thruster) is a transversal propulsion device built into, or mounted to, either the bow or stern, of a ship or boat to make it more manoeuvrable. Bow thrusters make docking easier, since they allow th ...

Gallery

File:HMS Shemara FL18981.jpg, HMS ''Shemara'' during World War II File:Shemara.jpg, MY ''Shemara'' in Southampton in May 2014 File:Venice, Italy - panoramio (818).jpg, MY ''Shemara'' in Venice in October 2014

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shemara, MY Motor yachts Ships built in England 1938 ships Ships built by John I. Thornycroft & Company