Rosalind mystery

In 1904 Stow & Sons completed the building of two sister yachts, the Rosalind and the Sylvia and the details for these are included in the list of Stow built yachts on this website  http://www.shorehambysea.com/stow-suter-yachts/

Recently we acquired an old postcard of a yacht moored outside Stow’s yard and on the reverse is written the date 26th August 1906. The vessel is without much doubt virtually identical to the Rosalind and Sylvia but there is no trace of Stow’s launching a yacht that year added to which Lloyds Registers Foundation have been kind enough to thoroughly check their records on our behalf and are able to categorically state that the completion/launch dates of the two yachts is definitely 1904.

Both yachts are still sailing and, even allowing for possible alterations in the years since, a comparison of the 1906 photo with the modern images reveals a number of similarities, most obvious of which are 1) the close proximity of the mizzenmast to the stern; 2) the mainmast is made up of two sections;  3) the spacing of the 1906 mainmast rigging where it meets the hull is equally spaced – all of which closely match the Rosalind more than the Sylvia (later renamed Mohawk II)

If it is the Rosalind why record a 1906 date on the back? Was it a mistake? Was it another, unrecorded vessel (highly unlikely)? Was there a regatta or other event that year that the Rosalind attended?

3 Replies to “Rosalind mystery”

  1. It looks like the aquisition date ti the Bill Hopkins Collection. The lower line is not readable in the web version. Who is Bill Hopkins and wahat was he collecting
     
    Ray Hall

  2. Don’t know who Bill Hopkins was I’m afraid. By the time I purchased the postcard it had probably had a number of owners. I have since found out that the Rosalind was surveyed for the Lloyds Registers at Shoreham in 1906 so that seems a possible answer too.  

  3. A quick google search reveals these two fairly recent comments:-

    1) He was a London-based collector/dealer of long standing with a vast hoard of postcards built up over many years. He setup and ran the Postcard Collector’s Centre in Kensington, where many of the ‘old-time’ dealers cut their dealing teeth – sadly many of those early dealers are no longer with us… 

    Bill Hopkins got it in his head to personalise each and every card he bought/sold with his handstamp – sometimes two or more times – sometimes with his name etc., sometimes with the London Postcard Centre… 

    He died 18+months ago and now his vast hoard is coming onto the Postcard scene once again in vast numbers, so expect to see a lot more examples!

     

    2) I don’t buy much on eBay but have just spotted a nice “military Wiltshire” card. The mini-image showed there were two oval franks on the reverse and my initial reaction was that these might be military- and highly collectable. No, one was was for “Bill Hopkins Collection”, the other for “London Postcard Centre”, both at 21 Kensington Park Road. And the message written on the back was interesting. But the franks destroyed any motivation I had to bid.

    Almost as bad as using gummed hinges to mount mint stamps (something I did, and now much regret, in the 1960s).

    Still, there may be scope for someone to start collecting postcards with dealers’ details stamped on them!

     

Comments are closed.