The Erin, now owned by Sir Thomas Lipton, Bart., was designed and built in 1896 for a Sicilian nobleman and was purchased later by the popular baronet and sporting yachtsman. One of the largest vessels of her time, she was 250 ft. long, and of 1330 tons displacement. The four-cylinder, carefully-balanced engines, of 2500 horse-power, gave her a sea speed of 15-1/2 knots. A view of this well-known yacht is given on Plate XXI., facing page 63.

Much might be written about the decoration of these yachts; but it may suffice to give illustrations of the dining- and drawing-rooms in the steam yacht Beryl, owned by the Right Hon. Baron Inverclyde. The saloons are in the Old-English style, and are treated with decorative freedom, but with strict simplicity. The walls in both cases are framed in solid figured white Austrian wainscot oak, highly finished and polished. The drawing-room has silk tapestry panels, relieved with chaste carving on the window canopies, dado rail and mantelpiece, and divided with bevelled and carved pilasters, with carved Corinthian capitals. In the dining-room, on the other hand, there is no tapestry, the whole being of oak, suitably carved. In the ports there are large plate-glass windows, fitted with Greenwood springs. In each room there is a large cupola skylight, which, with its rich stained glass, gives a fine decorative effect. The drawing-room cupola is fitted with a brass mushroom ventilator. The ceiling in each case is of yellow pine, moulded, ribbed, and beamed in the Tudor style, and painted flat white, picked out with gold.