Pictured: a built model of this ship — not the historical vessel.

Duchess of Kingston (1778)

Type

Royal Yacht

Period

18th Century

Nation

Great Britain

Overview: The Duchess of Kingston was a private, three-masted royal yacht built in the late 1770s for Elizabeth Chudleigh, Duchess of Kingston, a controversial and scandal-dogged figure in 18th-century British high society. The vessel was designed and built by the noted Bristol shipbuilder James Martin Hilhouse, and its style deliberately harked back to an earlier era rather than following contemporary Royal Navy fashion. Specifications: Surviving builder's plans held by the National Maritime Museum give a keel length of 68 feet, a deck length of 81 feet, a moulded breadth of 24 feet, a depth of hold of 10 feet, and a burthen of about 206 tons. The plans, signed by Hilhouse, show a decorated hull with carved stern board, figurehead, and sheer and body lines consistent with a lavishly appointed private yacht rather than a warship. Contemporary retellings describe a ship-rigged, three-masted vessel with an unusually opulent interior, including multiple silk-lined cabins and a grand state room for the Duchess. Service History: The yacht was built after the Duchess had already left England for the Continent following the death of her (bigamous) second husband, the Duke of Kingston, and it was used to carry her between England, Italy, and other parts of Europe during her years of self-imposed exile. Her position became still more precarious after she was convicted of bigamy in a highly publicized 1776 trial before the House of Lords, and one account states that after this scandal the yacht was eventually seized by the authorities and sold. Details of her ultimate fate — breaking up, further sale, or loss — are not well documented in available sources. Notable Facts: The ship's builder's draught, addressed on the reverse to "Her Grace the Duchess of Kingston," survives in the Royal Museums Greenwich collection and is a valuable reference for the yacht's actual lines and decoration. Today the vessel is best known to modelers through the Vanguard Models 1:64 scale kit, which recreates her gilded carvings, decorated bow and stern, and below-decks detail, and has been the subject of numerous build logs on Model Ship World and Ships of Scale.