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AILEE undersail in Cannes

Photographer George Frederick Garrard (Australian, 1870 - 1949)

Date1925

Object numberANMS0328[035]

NamePhotograph

MediumSilver gelatin print

DimensionsOverall: 87 × 129 mm, 0.002 g

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineANMM Collection Gift from Paula Stafford

Terms

HistoryGeorge Garrard, diary entry for Cannes, 1 April 1925, 'Saw the yacht AILEE arrive.This vessel was the Kaiser's racing schooner METEOR & was at Southampton when war broke out in 1914, & the vessel of course was taken as a prize. Now under the name of ALIEE she belongs to Madame Heriot & flies the French flag. A very beautiful craft of fully 300 tons, and with an enormous sail spread' another entry reads 'Madame Heriot's big schooner called in for an hour, and then she sailed again under power, towing a couple of 5 metre yachts; but I dont know where she was bound for, as she headed for the West, probably making for Marseille'. Virginia Heriot (1890-1932) was a famous French yachtswoman (she won gold at the 1928 Olympics), she purchased AILEE in the early 1920s and lived on it for most of the year. The AILEE was 47 metre auxiliary schooner racing yacht built in 1909 as the METEOR IV for Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany. It was seized as a war prize at the start of WWI. According to Garrard's diary the AILEE sailed in a number of regattas at Cannes during March/April 1925, 'Got a snap of AILEE under full sail so hope it will turn out well.The Regatta still continues daily, but in each race I've watched, one boat always seems to runaway from the others, thus spoiling any close finishes'.