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The Aphrodite soon after her launching in December 1899 along the Kennebec River in Maine.===>> |
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The Aphrodite on loan to the US Navy for patrol duty in the North Sea during World War I ===>> |
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Payne's yacht, the Aphrodite, was usually moored below the mansion,
with a tender carrying guests to the boathouse and dock.
1915 photo received from
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 This model of the Aphrodite was on sale on the internet in 2009 for only $7,500. The steam yacht had beautiful lines. |
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 ▲ The boathouse had provisions to hoist the tender over the ice. The Aphrodite itself did not dock at the dock but just beyond the outcrop of trees seen through the portcullis (designed by Julian Burroughs). The mooring allowed residents of the main house to see the boat framed by the landscaping. |
 ▲ Stateroom door from the Aphrodite. This is still in use in on of the buildings on Riverby, the Burroughs family land south of Payne's estate. Julian Burroughs was the manager of the estate. Printed with permission of Joan Burroughs. Photo by Victor Van Carpels 2007 |
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This sherd of a Minton plate from the Aphrodite is
the only memory remaining of its elegant furnishings, which were
stored in a Long Island warehouse when the ship was outfitted for war
service. The warehouse was destroyed by fire. Photo by Victor Van Carpels 2007. The sherd was found in a refuse pile on Riverby, the Burroughs family land south of Payne's estate. Julian Burroughs was the manager of the estate. Printed with permission of Joan Burroughs. |
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<<=== The Aphrodite in drydock, at an unknown location. It was constructed at the Bath Iron Works in Maine, but the drydock is huge, as are the two vessels in the background. Another photo of the Aphrodite. This photo and the photo directly left was received September 2008 from Rick Mundy who studied with the Marist Brothers both in Esopus and Poughkeepsie. He thinks he retrieved them from a junk pile in the Marist College darkroom. Both photos are marked mansion in pencil on the back. ===>>
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<<=== The USS Aphrodite on patrol as seen from the stern of another loaned steam yacht.
Photo received from Donna Stuart |
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Donna Stuart, author of an interesting article about the Aphrodite in Portland, Maine magazine, sent this photo of the Aphrodite in dry-dock in Portsmouth, England. Click here to read her account of the Aphrodite during and after World War I ===>>
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Some of the wartime crew. Payne's crew for the Aphrodite averaged 58.. The wartime crew totaled 128. ===>> Photo received from Donna Stuart March 2009 |
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<<=== Wartime convoy
Photo received from
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J. Pierpont Morgan is quoted as saying: "If you have to ask the price
of a yacht, then you can't afford to own one!" The excerpt from
a 1901 article below reinforces this point. ▼
Excerpted via Google Internet pp. 273-277 |
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Take all the yachts that we often hear of. In all of them you will find a considerable discrepancy in the rock-bottom running expenses and the money that is really spent on them. Consider the entertainment of guests, the salaries of captains and officers and crews, sustenance, spars, sails, rigging and other gear; stewards' and engineers' expenses and the like.' No little sum is involved. It will be a matter of surprise, perhaps, when we say that Col. 0. H. Payne's 15o- ton steam yacht Aphrodite burnsforty-five tons of coal a day, when she steams at a fair rate of speed. Coal now costs about $4 a ton. Forty- five tons a day—$18o A captain of a yacht like the Aphrodite receives about $2oo a month; the mates, between $75 and $1oo. Her seamen receive $3o a month, and so do the firemen and oilers. The chief cook is paid at least $5o, and his three assistants, $3o, while the head steward, whose duty it is to look after the quantity and quality of the supplies, to attend to guests and to see that everything runs smoothly, is cheap at $1oo or $125 each month. It costs about fifty cents a day, on an average, to feed each of the sixty men on the Aphrodite. Then take the cost of engineers' and mates' stores, the maintenance of the cabin and wine lockers, the various entertainments and you find that it costs not less than $6,ooo a month to run her; say $8o,ooo a year. Such a figure was cited by a person who is in a position to know But another point of view is suggested when we consider the host of men employed on these yachts : the carpenters, mechanics, riggers, painters and plumbers, whose services were needed in the construction of them, and the butchers, bakers, grocers, wine dealers, tobacconists who are called upon to supply the stores. Thus the money expended by the yachtsman flows through hundreds of hands and benefits many trades. |
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Most recent revision: 4 April 2009 |
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