MY Shemara

The English industrialist Bernard Docker commissioned John I. Thornycroft & Company to build a yacht to his specifications. The yacht was built at Thornycroft's yard at Woolston, Southampton. She was completed in 1938 and christened MY Shemara.[5][6]

MY Shemara was requisitioned by the Royal Navy at the start of the Second World War in 1939 and used as a training vessel for anti-submarine warfare. (See also Madiz, a similar super yacht that saw RN Service in WWII). It was during a training exercise with HMS Shemara that the submarine HMS Untamed was lost with all her crew. Shemara left Royal Navy service in 1946.[7][8]

Once returned to Docker's ownership, the Shemara became known for lavish parties with guests including King Farouk of Egypt. However, in 1965, Docker put her on the market for £600,000, and she was eventually sold to the property developer Harry Hyams for £290,000. Hyams used the Shemara on a number of Mediterranean cruises, but she was largely left laid up in Lowestoft, and was not regularly used between the 1980s and 2010.[9][10]

In 2010 Shemara was bought by businessman Charles Dunstone, and a project was started to return her to her former glory. In order to achieve this, a new company, Shemara Refit LLP, was created. The refit was completed in 2014, and the yacht now has a contemporary interior while retaining many of her historic original features, including as much of her original steel and teak as possible. The ship's machinery was completely replaced with a new Rolls-Royce diesel-electric system comprising five main generators providing power for two electrically driven azimuthing pods and a bow thruster.[1][3][4][11]

• 
  HMS Shemara during World War II
• 
  MY Shemara in Southampton in May 2014
• 
  MY Shemara in Venice in October 2014