In March 1914, Julien Chauvelon, the Belem's Captain, stood at the helm for the last time as he sailed her across the Channel to leave her with her new owner, the Duke of Westminster. It was a day of sadness for him at having to say goodbye to the ship he had been commanding for the last 13 years, but it was also a relief to know that she was escaping the fate of so many other sailing ships of the Merchant Navy the world over. They were being abandoned by the thousands, destroyed or left to rot in dead-end canals because they could not compete with the new steam ships, so much faster though more expensive to run.
But the Belem's lucky star was watching over her. Hugh Richard Arthur Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster, was looking for a yacht. He was head of one of Britain's richest families and was spoilt for choice when it came to beautiful ships but the compact, elegant lines of this French vessel took his fancy, so the Belem was spared the breaker's yard.
But she was a working ship and living arrangements on board were minimal, to say the least. So Westminster had her totally refurbished and turned into a luxury yacht where he could entertain up to 40 guest in the style to which he and they were accustomed. The Belem was fitted with twin Swedish Bolinder engines and two propellers, the wooden masts were replaced by steel based ones, the quarter deck was raised, cabins were built and lined in Cuban mahogany, a set of other cabins were built in the upper part of the vast hold, the crew's quarters built under the forecastle; a deck house was built at the foot of the main mast and furbished as a reception room. Last but not least : a balustrade of little white columns surrounding the quarter deck gave, and still gives, the Belem a touch of post Victorian fantasy that is now an intrinsic part of her identity...
So the little French merchant ship was reborn as an aristocratic English yacht and proudly sailed the seven seas flying the pennant of the Royal Yacht Squadron, yet under her original name, in accordance with maritime rules. Le Belem was now The Belem...
But that also was soon to change.

 

Associating with the upper echelons of British Society one day brought the Belem to the attention of Sir Arthur Ernest Guinness, of the well-known Irish brewing dynasty. He decided he wanted her for his own and convinced the Duke of Westminster to sell in 1921. Waiving rules and customs, her changed her name to Fantôme II – spelt the French way. Guinness was strongly attached to his yacht, to the point of having a small deckhouse built as an extension of the main one and havingit furnished as his office so he could see to his business without leaving the ship, wherever they happened to be. And that was literally everywhere : from March 1923 to March 1924 he even sailed her round the world, going through the Panama canal on the way out, the Suez canal on the way back. There again, the Belem may have changed her name but she kept the same lucky star : in Japan, the yacht and her owner narrowly missed being caught in a tragic earthquake that destroyed the port of Yokohama... A year later, they were skirting icebergs along the arctic coast of Spit berg, another time sailing up the Guadalquivir to Seville; in 1938, they were moored in the port of Montreal, celebrating King George 6th ‘s coronation...
But once again, destiny took a hand – a cruel hand – when in 1939, the Second World War broke out. Fantôme II was put of commission and laid up in Cowes Harbour, in the Isle of Wight, where she was destined to remain for 12 long years. During the war, she was used temporarily as HQ to the Free French Forces' sea launches (patrol boats ?) sub-division. Her yards and sails were destroyed in a bombing. Then there she lay, forgotten and ignored...until 1951.