View of Delfshaven, Holland with Yacht "Princess Mary"
From Arthur Clark's History of Yachting (chapter 6, pp 116-119): "KING CHARLES was succeeded by his brother, the Duke of York, who became King James II. of England. He reigned but four years, abdicating December 11, 1688. No record has been found that any yachts were built during these years. But with the accession of the Prince of Orange,--King of William III. of England--was introduced one of the most remarkable yachts of that period,��the Princess Mary.
It is not known exactly when or where this yacht was built. Some writers suppose that she appeared in the early part of the seventeenth century in England, and that her original name was the Brill. This, however, seems extremely improbable, as no yachts are known to have been built in England prior to 1661. It is hardly possible, too, that any one would have imported a yacht from England into Holland��at that time the home of yacht building; whose shipwrights also excelled in shipbuilding. It is probable, rather, that the Princess Mary was built in Holland about 1677, during the year Prince William married the Princess Mary of England, in whose honor the yacht was christened.
A portrait is here given of this yacht, lying off Delft Haven. On her high stern may be seen the arms of the Prince of Orange, and on her flag-staff the standard she carried when William of Orange came from Holland to become the King of England, bearing the motto: "The Protestant Relig: and the Liberty of England"; also the motto of the house of Nassau: "Je Maintiendray."
The admirals of the seventy ships that composed the fleet that escorted William to Torbay, where he landed November 5, 1688, carried a red flag with the first of these mottoes inscribed upon it.
In February, 1689, a number of yachts,--the Princess Mary among them,--were sent to Holland with a fleet under command of Lord Admiral Herbert to escort Queen Mary to England. An illustration of her landing at the Isle of Thanet, February 22, 1689, is here given, showing three of the royal yachts in the foreground saluting, the smoke from the guns somewhat obscuring their hulls.
This distinction should have been enough for any yacht; and the Princess Mary, about twelve years old,--although some writers state her age to have been, then, more than half a century,--might well have retired with honor. But her career was not ended; in reality it had only begun."
