Description

EL PRIMERO STEAM YACHT

FULLY BUILT AND READY TO DISPLAY HIGH QUALITY SHIP MODEL

Dimension approx.: 32L x 4.5W x 16H (inch)
The model is already built. THIS IS NOT A MODEL SHIP KIT

When El Primero slid down the ways at Union Iron Works in San Francisco in August 1893, she represented a milestone in American yacht building: the first steam yacht ever constructed on the U.S. West Coast. Commissioned by Edward W. Hopkins — heir to the Mark Hopkins fortune — she was a $250,000 expression of Gilded Age luxury, engineering ambition, and West Coast pride. At more than 120 feet long and powered by a 225‑ihp triple‑expansion steam engine, she combined modern propulsion with a graceful auxiliary schooner rig, giving her both elegance and endurance.

Hopkins cruised aboard El Primero until 1906, when she was sold to Tacoma banker and industrialist Chester Thorne. Under Thorne’s ownership, the yacht became a fixture of Puget Sound society, hosting lavish excursions and distinguished guests. Among them were President William Howard Taft, who sailed aboard her in both 1907 and 1909, and later presidents Warren G. Harding, Herbert Hoover, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Few American yachts can claim such a roster of presidential passengers.

In 1911, El Primero passed into new hands in a fashion as colorful as her era: Thorne lost her in a poker game to Sidney Albert “Sam” Perkins, a newspaper publisher and prominent yacht club commodore. Perkins would own her for more than four decades, guiding her through the Great Depression, World War II, and the postwar years.

During World War II, the U.S. Navy requisitioned El Primero and converted her into a patrol vessel — a common fate for private yachts of her size. Returned to Perkins in 1947, she resumed civilian life and, by the 1950s, was one of only two operational steam yachts still cruising Puget Sound, alongside the famed Aquilo. Her survival into the mid‑20th century was remarkable; most steam yachts of her generation had long since been scrapped.

By the 1960s, practicality overtook nostalgia, and El Primero was converted from steam to diesel propulsion. After Perkins’ death in 1955, she passed through several owners, including excursion operators and private individuals. Arthur B. Church and later Trudy Kalke envisioned her as a floating bed‑and‑breakfast, but the yacht’s age and maintenance demands made such dreams difficult to realize.

Kalke retired the yacht in 2000, laying her up in Blaine, Washington, where she sat idle for a decade. Her fortunes changed in 2010 when tugboat captain and engineer Christian Lint purchased her and began a determined restoration effort in Port Townsend. El Primero was displayed publicly in 2013, underwent further refitting in 2017, and later moved to Astoria, Oregon, for additional work. Progress was steady but fragile; a 2020 storm caused significant damage and slowed the restoration.

In 2022, ownership transferred to Jeff Anderson of Oregon, who continues the long, careful process of returning El Primero to her former glory. Today she remains afloat and active in limited service — a rare survivor of 19th‑century American yacht building and widely recognized as the oldest power superyacht in the world.

More than 130 years after her launch, El Primero endures as a symbol of early West Coast maritime innovation, presidential history, and the enduring allure of classic yachts. Her story spans Gilded Age opulence, wartime duty, decades of decline, and passionate preservation. Few vessels embody such a sweeping arc of American maritime heritage — and fewer still continue to sail.