1932 Photo Album Maiden Voyage of Superyacht MV SAVARONA Largest Yacht in World

Description

An album of more than 400 original photographs (about 450 counting the group of loose snapshots also laid-in) documenting an early cruise of one of the first superyachts, the MV Savarona. This was the largest private yacht in the world when completed in late 1931. It is now the official Presidential yacht of the Republic of Turkey.
This album documents a cruise (or cruises) aboard the ship from January to March, 1932, its first pleasure trips after being finished by Hamburg shipbuilders Blohm and Voss and brought across the Atlantic to Bermuda on its voyage to meet its owner and commissioner, Emily Roebling Cadwalader, a wealthy heiress of Philadelphia.
The ship, measuring 407 feet overall, required a crew of 100 to operate, and was finished at an estimated cost of million. This album, presented to a presumed passenger, Azel Ames, Jr., (a Wakefield, Massachusetts physician whom we suspect may have been the ship's doctor) documents a cruise which appears to depart from Bermuda, touching Cuba and Venezuela, then passing through the Panama Canal to eventually end up around South America in Buenos Aires ; contents are not explicitly notated or identified, though environs are often distinct and society pages of several American newspapers mention the trip and its passengers, which included a Major and Mrs. Anthony Drexell (Philadelphia) ; a Major and Mrs. Biddle (Chicago) and a retired New York financier named Edward S. Moore.
An engaging and thorough photographic record of the earliest voyages of a magnificent 20th Century yacht. A few quotes concerning this journey from contemporary newspaper reports:
“[…] Mrs. Cadwalader is going to Bermuda to get her first sight of her new yacht Savarona, which recently arrived there after a maiden trip across the Atlantic from builders’ yards at Hamburg. The Savarona is the biggest private yacht in the world. Her gross tonnage of 5,000 is equal to that of most freighters that dock along the Brooklyn waterfront. She cost ,000,000 to build and is 407 feet over all, 65 feet longer than J.P. Morgan’s new Corsair.”
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle ; January 2, 1932
“Mr. and Mrs. Richard Cadwalader, of “Fairworld,” Fort Washington, who with a party of guests have boarded their yacht, Savarona, at Bermuda, will cruise to Cuba and in Florida waters before returning home the latter part of next month.”
The Philadelphia Inquirer ; January 10, 1932
“Also here is Mrs. Richard M. Cadwalader of Philadelphia, owner of the palatial yacht, Savarona, which has been lying in Hamilton harbor. The boat is the fifth to be built by her, according to local gossip, and carries a crew of over 100 men.”
Chicago Tribune ; January 17, 1932
Photo Albums] : [Yachts].
THE PERFECT CRUISE OF THE SAVARONA, January 18, 1932 to March 22, 1932 [Cover Title - Original Presentation Photo Album]
. Various Places: (1932). Custom presentation photo album. Approximately 15 1/2" x 11." Board panels covered in 1/4 tooled leather and black cloth hinged to post binding assembly (spine). Gilt lettering stamped to front: "THE PERFECT CRUISE OF THE SAVARONA / JANUARY 18, 1932 / TO / MARCH 22, 1932." With the name "AZEL AMES, JR." stamped in same at lower right. 47 black paper leaves with about 400 black and white snapshot photographs (most approximately 4" x 2 3/4" ; some slightly larger) and 14 enlargements (about 8" x 10" or slightly larger) adhesive mounted to rectos and versos. Three additional leaves blank at end ; 48 additional snapshots and an 11" x 3 1/2" panoramic photograph laid-in loose. Leather at spine mildly dried out, still holding all together reasonably well and overall the album and contents remains soundly very good.
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