Lot 717: Antonio de Simone (Italian, fl.1877-1910)

Antonio de Simone (Italian, fl.1877-1910)
The steam yacht Doris, 715 tons in the Bay of Naples
bodycolour
17¼ x 25¼ in. (43.8 x 64.2 cm.)

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The 715-ton steam yacht Doris was launched in 1896 as the Iolaire and was designed and built at Leith by Ramage & Ferguson for the wealthy shipping tycoon Sir Donald Currie, founder and chairman of the Castle [later Union-Castle] Shipping Line. A steel screw schooner registered at 531 tons gross (227 net & 715 Thames), she measured 202 feet in length with a 28 foot beam and was engined by her builders. Currie kept her until 1902 - when she was replaced by a new yacht of the same name - at which date his original yacht was sold to Mr. Solomon Joel, the immensely rich South African millionaire diamond magnate. Joel renamed her Doris and kept her until 1910 when she was once again replaced by a large new vessel which took her name. The first Doris (ex. Iolaire) was then sold to H. Echevarrieta of Bilbao, Spain, who renamed her Cosme Jacinta and kept her for nearly twenty years. Still afloat in 1939, although by then back in British ownership and named Marion, she had been broken up by 1946.