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From Edward VIII to James Dyson: the yacht that tells a tale of British wealth

The fortunes of industry and a handful of ultra-rich individuals are woven through the history of the Nahlin

I n the early years of this century, soon after he began moving production of his bagless vacuum cleaner from Wiltshire to south-east Asia , James Dyson bought a superb yacht. The Nahlin is exemplary in the beauty of its lines and instructive in its history, though how much of this history Dyson understands or relishes is hard to know. Despite spending a fortune (at least £25m) on its restoration, Dyson has never talked publicly about his yacht, no more than he has about his purchase of Singapore’s most expensive flat (£43m) and its sale soon after, at a loss. For a time, a kind of omertà prevailed about the vessel’s ownership among its team of restorers, though to own and care for such an elegant piece of naval architecture would surely be no shame.

What Dyson certainly knows is that it was on the Nahlin that King Edward VIII and Mrs Wallis Simpson shed any discretion and “came out” as a couple – a relationship reported across the world, though not at the time in Britain – precipitating the crisis that ended with the king’s abdication a few months later, in December 1936. “The cruise of the Nahlin” became an inevitable chapter in any telling of the event, though how the king came to be aboard such a mysteriously named vessel tended to be overlooked. In fact, the name is said to have Native American origins, and reportedly means “fleet of foot” – the yacht’s figurehead wears a chieftain’s headdress – and the king was aboard because the Foreign Office, worried by social unrest in France, had warned against his original plan to rent a villa there.

So instead he rented the Nahlin, to avoid the fuss that a voyage in the royal yacht, the Victoria and Albert, would create and perhaps also because the Nahlin, commissioned only six years earlier, appealed to his appetite for cocktail modernity. Fuss, however, was unavoidable. At Šibenik, the Dalmatian port where the king and Mrs Simpson boarded the yacht, an exuberant crowd of 20,000 turned up and (thanks to reports in the American press) showed as much interest in her as in him; at sea, two Royal Navy destroyers, the Grafton and the Glowworm, accompanied the Nahlin wherever she went – a leisurely August progress down the Adriatic, through the Corinth canal to the Greek islands, and eventually to Istanbul. The “nanny-boats”, as Lady Diana Cooper called them; she and a few other prominent society figures were also aboard, as well as a crew around 60-strong.

Of course, the term yacht is misleading. No sails have ever been involved. The Nahlin, like its bland modern equivalents, was a yacht only in the sense that its sole purpose was its owner’s pleasure, the owner being in this case a Lady Yule. Launched in 1930 from the Clydebank shipyard of John Brown & Co – builder of celebrated liners such as Cunard’s two Queens – it measures 300ft in length and was originally powered by four steam turbines. Characteristically of the steam yacht, of which the Nahlin was among the very last examples, its hull preserves elements of the sailing ship, with a curved clipper bow and a counter stern, each stretching well beyond the waterline. The shape and colour of steam yachts – white hull, cream funnel – made people think of swans. Their costs and months of idleness meant they were an indulgence that only the richest magnates on either side of the Atlantic could afford: JP Morgan, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Sir Thomas Lipton.

And Lady Yule? She was thought to be the richest widow in England. How had she come by her money? Jute, was the short answer. A longer one involves a story of British innovation and industrial expansion overseas that Dyson might recognise, beginning in the 1820s when Dundee manufacturers began to look for an alternative to hemp in the making of sacking, rope and sailcloth. Jute was cheap and reliably available from Bengal in British India, but it was tough and brittle and broke easily when it was spun or woven. After years of experiment, it was successfully made pliable by the application of whale oil, of which Dundee as a whaling port had no shortage.

The demand for jute fabric and jute rope boomed, and Dundee enjoyed a near monopoly until the 1870s, when British industrialists began to open jute mills in Bengal itself because, as economic historian Morris D Morris has pointed out, “jute manufacturing was not a complicated process [and] cheap labour was a very great advantage”. Bengal had five jute mills in 1870 and 69 jute mills in 1914, as cheaper Indian-made jute conquered foreign markets previously served by Dundee, and exports of jute cloth from India grew 272 times over the same period; even better was to come with the first world war, when the word “sandbag” must have sounded like a ringing cash register in the inner ear of every Indian jute trader.

The Yule family benefited enormously. Annie Henrietta (Lady) Yule was the daughter of Andrew Yule, the son of a small-town draper in Scotland who arrived in Kolkata (then Calcutta) in 1863 as an agent representing several British firms, and whose family eventually owned tea estates, coalmines, cotton and flour mills, railways, and 2,400 square miles of productive land – as well as the jute mills that Andrew Yule’s nephew and successor, Sir David Yule, had taken an especial interest in expanding. Sir David was a shy workaholic who rarely left Kolkata. Aged 42, he married another Yule, his cousin Annie Henrietta. When he died in 1928, soon after ordering his steam yacht, the Times described him as“one of the wealthiest men, if not the wealthiest man, in the country”.

Where did it all go? Lady Yule and her daughter Gladys made a long and expensive world cruise in the Nahlin in the early 1930s. She invested heavily and sometimes unwisely in the British film industry; she opened a stud farm. She had, in the words of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, “strong religious opinions, a sharp tongue, and imperious habits”. Her attempt to force teetotalism on the Nahlin’ s crew was probably not a success. At any rate she sold the ship to King Carol II of Romania in 1937, after which the Nahlin disappeared from the map of British interests – missing, presumed dead – until an English yacht broker, Nicholas Edmiston, discovered it moored in the Danube as a floating restaurant in the 1990s. It passed briefly through the ownership of another Brexit-supporting tycoon, Sir Anthony Bamford, before Dyson bought it in 2006.

This week, thanks to the wonder of digital ship location, I traced the yacht’s present whereabouts to the Blohm+Voss shipyard in Hamburg; it had reached there from the Caribbean via Gibraltar and Falmouth. Blohm+Voss spent millions of Dyson’s money when the yacht was first restored and re-engined, and it may be there now for its annual overhaul. The shipyard is old and distinguished, and still fills the harbour with the sounds of building and repair work. They even build luxury yachts there; the clients include Roman Abramovich and Vladimir Putin.

Nothing remains of the Nahlin’s birthplace at Clydebank, apart from a large crane that stands useless at the river’s edge. Ships, like bagless vacuum cleaners and jute, are made elsewhere.

Ian Jack is a Guardian columnist

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Sir James Dyson's luxury yacht in Cornwall after Boris Johnson text message controversy

The 300ft Nahlin which has turned up in Falmouth was previously part of King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson's abdication romance

• 17:18, 23 APR 2021
• Updated 09:02, 24 APR 2021

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Vacuum billionaire Sir James Dyson may well have scarpered to Cornwall to escape the fallout from ‘Textgate’ as his 300ft yacht has been spotted in Falmouth harbour.

One of Britain’s most prominent businessmen has been caught up in what the Labour Party has called “new Tory sleaze” after texts between him and Prime Minister Boris Johnson about tax and the provision of ventilators were made public.

Mr Johnson has said he will publish his text messages and “makes absolutely no apology” for the exchanges with Mr Dyson promising to “fix” tax status for the firm to help build ventilators.

Number 10 sources have accused the PM’s former senior advisor Dominic Cummings of leaking the text messages.

A trip to sunny Cornwall can fix most problems and this might be what Mr Dyson is hoping as his luxury yacht Nahlin is currently in Falmouth , moored on the harbour’s Cross Roads buoy.

You can stay up to date on the top news and events near you with CornwallLive’s FREE newsletters – enter your email address at the top of the page.

Launched in 1930, she is one of the last large steam yachts constructed in the UK having been built by John Brown & Company at Clydebank and was constructed immediately before the RMS Queen Mary.

In 1936 Nahlin was chartered by King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson for a cruise in the Adriatic Sea, photos from which sparked rumours of the impending abdication. Informal photographs of Edward and Simpson on board together during the cruise were not published in Britain but became front-page news in America.

The yacht was then bought by King Carol of Romania in 1937 and later became a floating restaurant in the country.

Sir James purchased the yacht from Sir Anthony Bamford, chairman of JCB, in 2006. The inventor spent five years comprehensively rebuilding and restoring it and the ship was recommissioned in 2010 as the Nahlin and registered again in Glasgow, Scotland.

The name Nahlin is taken from a Native American word meaning "fleet of foot" and the yacht has a figurehead depicting a Native American wearing a feathered headdress beneath the bowsprit.

She was originally furnished with six en-suite staterooms for guests, a gymnasium, a ladies' sitting room with sea views on three sides, and a library.

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James Dyson retrofits classic steam yacht

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Sir James Dyson, the renowned English industrial designer has refitted a 300 feet classic steam yacht named Nahlin.

The 1930 steam yacht Nahlin was completely restored at Blohm + Voss (B+V), a German yacht building firm. The yacht has been refitted with new diesel engines and period-correct paneling and moldings.

Sir James Dyson, who is best known as the inventor of the Dual Cyclone bagless vacuum cleaner, has refurbished the classic yacht and has re-launched it. Nahlin was originally designed by G.L. Watson for a British heiress and was later owned by the Romanian Royal Family. The 1,574 ton Nahlin, which is 91.4m in length and can hold 58 crew and 351 passengers, was built for Lady Annie Henrietta Yule in 1930.

The historic super yacht was involved in the abdication of King Edward VIII, and has spent much of the last 70 years as a floating restaurant on the river Danube until it was reportedly bought by Dyson. It is believed that Dyson has shelled out GBP25 million ($38.7 million) for the retrofit project.

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Sir James Dyson's Motor Yacht, Nahlin, Moors Off Cornish Coast

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James Dyson, the billionaire famous for buying Singapore's most expensive penthouse in 2019, has moved back to the UK

• Billionaire James Dyson, inventor of the Dyson vacuum cleaner, has moved back to the UK after two years in Singapore.
• Dyson spent $54 million on Singapore's most expensive penthouse in July 2019. He sold it in 2020.
• High-profile billionaires like Sergey Brin and Ray Dalio are opening family offices in the city-state.

Billionaire James Dyson, inventor of the Dyson vacuum cleaner and a notable Singapore resident for about two years, has moved his main address back to the United Kingdom , Benjamin Stupples reported for Bloomberg, citing filings for Dyson's companies including his family office.

Dyson made headlines for paying $54 million for a three-story penthouse atop Singapore's tallest building in July 2019, breaking the city-state's real-estate record. That same year, he relocated the Dyson headquarters to Singapore from the UK and opened a branch of his family office in the city-state. 

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Estimates of Dyson's personal net worth range from around $10 billion to as high as $29 billion , with his wealth stemming from his holdings in Dyson Holdings Pte., the UK's best-selling vacuum cleaner , according to Bloomberg.

It's unclear why Dyson, 73, has switched his residency back to his home country. In October 2020, he sold his Singapore penthouse at a $7 million loss, but he still reportedly owns another home in Singapore, a bungalow worth a reported 50 million Singapore dollars , or nearly $38 million.

Dyson's company, which currently employs about 1,400 people in Singapore, said last week that the company would "shortly" be moving into its new headquarters at an old power station in Singapore, according to the Business Times.

"We do not comment on private family matters and nothing has changed in respect of the company," a Dyson spokesperson told Bloomberg. "The structure of the group and the business rationale underpinning it are unaltered."

Representatives from Dyson's company and charitable foundation did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment for this story. 

Dyson, who designed the world's first bagless vacuum cleaner  in 1983, also owns a 300-acre estate in the English countryside. On Wednesday, his luxury yacht, Nahlin, was spotted moored off England's Cornish Coast, photos on Getty Images show.

Dyson may be spending less time in the city-state, but other wealthy foreigners seem to be more interested in Singapore than ever. The number of ultra-wealthy people in Singapore grew in 2020 despite the pandemic, according to Knight Frank's annual Wealth Report. In the past six months, billionaire Google cofounder Sergey Brin and hedge fund billionaire Ray Dalio both announced they'd be setting up family offices in Singapore . 

Singapore's low taxes have long attracted foreign investors, and the city-state's handling of the coronavirus pandemic has "cemented the country's traditional safe haven status" for the ultra-rich, Wendy Tang, Knight Frank's Group Managing Director in Singapore, said in a recent report .

"When coupled with strong and enduring economic fundamentals, stable governance, and an attractively competitive tax regime, Singapore offers a break in the clouds that pushed some of the world's mega-rich to have a presence here in recent years," Tang said.

Watch: Hydroxychloroquine, what it is, and what it does to your body

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Sir James Dyson remains richest person in the South West despite losing £2bn

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• James Dyson
• Friday 17 May 2024 at 10:17am

Sir James Dyson has been named as the richest person in the South West on this year’s edition of The Sunday Times Rich List. 

Sir Elton John, Lord Lloyd-Webber and David and Victoria Beckham all appear in the annual survey. The minimum entry on the list is £350million. 

Perhaps Britain’s best-known inventor, Sir James Dyson, who has just launched a £600 electric mop, remains the richest in the South West with his fortune of £20.8billion. 

This is despite experiencing losses of £2.2billion.

Chris and Sarah Dawson, owners of The Range, came second in the South West with £2.5billion, a rise of £475million in the last year.

How much is one billion pounds?

It's hard to visualise just how much money one billion pounds is. If you think about it in time, one million seconds is equal to 12 days. However, a billion seconds would take 31 years to pass.

In the 36-year history of the rich list, there’s been a drop in the number of billionaires to 165, compared to 177 in 2022. 

Now 350 individuals and families are on the list with a combined wealth of £795.361billion. 

Robert Watts, compiler of the Sunday Times Rich List, said: “This year’s Sunday Times Rich List suggests Britain’s billionaire boom has come to an end. 

“Many of our home-grown entrepreneurs have seen their fortunes fall and some of the global super rich who came here are moving away. 

“Thousands of British livelihoods rely on the super-rich to some extent. We’ll have to wait and see whether we have now reached peak billionaire, and what that means for our economy. 

“These may be harder times to create wealth, but The Sunday Times Rich List continues to unearth entrepreneurs building fortunes in diverse and often surprising ways. This year’s new entries include people who have made money from artificial intelligence and virtual worlds as well as plumbing supplies and teaching aides.  

“We know many of our readers find such people — especially those from humbler backgrounds — very inspiring.” 

Dyson set to launch new £599 electric mop

• British home appliance giant will launch the WashG1 later this year
• Read more:  Can the new £450 Dyson Airstrait end your frizzy hair woes by drying and straightening your hair in one?

Dyson has unveiled its latest appliance - and it's likely to be music to the ears of anyone who hates a mop and bucket.   

The new £599 WashG1 electric mop claims to sweep up wet and dry dirt, and then leave floors dry, with a 'barefoot clean feel'. 

Launched later this year, it aims to answer a need for a new kind of hard floor cleaners, says Dyson, as the trend for ditching carpets continues. 

According to the Dyson Global Dust Study, which was released in 2023 and monitored the cleaning habits of 30,000 people from 39 countries, 75 per cent of UK homes now have some or all hard floor surfaces. That figure rises to 95 per cent internationally. 

Until now, fans of the Dyson vacuum have had to be content with its £799 V15 Submarine cleaner, which is suitable for wet and dry spills - or rival products from the likes of Karcher and Shark - but the WashG1 is the fruit of continued major investment by the brand in new products. 

Those keen to get their hands on one - and who can afford the handsome price tag - will have to wait a while longer, but can sign up to the Dyson newsletter on the company's website to ensure they're first in line when the WashG1 is released later this year.  

The company, founded in 1991 by Sir James Dyson, 77, has poured money into developing new technology, with a string of releases in recent years, including the £450 Dyson Airstrate hair straighteners  and the 360 Vis Nav robot vacuum.

The WashG1 appliance uses 'highly absorbent microfibre filament rollers' which counter-rotate to remove floors of dust, dirt and dried on stains, says the British manufacturer. 

The dirty water and debris is collected, but kept separate from a litre capacity clean water tank via a 500-micron mesh.

And, says Dyson, there's no chance of using too much or too little water; a pulse modulated hydration pump precisely controls and adjusts the amount of water dispensed onto your floors. 

The biggest appeal for homeowners who hate having to change the water with a traditional mop and bucket - after they've vacuumed - is that it can cover up to 290 square metres of flooring; an average three-bedroom UK house has around 88 square metres. 

Charlie Park, Vice President of Dyson Home Engineering, said: 'Dyson engineers solve the problems others ignore and we thrive on the challenge of creating better technology. 

'The Dyson WashG1 is the result of this; our first dedicated wet machine to wash hard floors, properly and hygienically.'

The brand, which employs 3,700 people in Britain, is investing £100 million in a new Technology Centre in Bristol to drive forward its products, many of which will incorporate AI.

This article may contain affiliate links that Microsoft and/or the publisher may receive a commission from if you buy a product or service through those links.

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