Shamrock I and Margarita

Oil on canvas 14” x 24” 1994

The steam yacht Margarita was designed by G.L. Watson for the American banker A.J. Drexel of Philadelphia, and launched in 1900. In her heyday she had a rose garden on deck! Later she was renamed Semiramis when owned by the Marquess of Anglesey.

In this scene she is anchored off Cowes as Sir Thomas Lipton’s Shamrock I charges past: Shamrock had challenged for the 1899 America’s Cup Challenge, losing to the defender Columbia.