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Cleopatra’s Barge

Cleopatra’s Barge is considered to be the first seagoing pleasure yacht in history. Built in 1816 by George Crowninshield Jr. of Salem, Massachusetts, it was to be a pleasure ship, not a vessel of commerce or war. Built with money his father had made as a privateer during the Revolution and the War of 1812, Crowninshield commissioned the construction of a 191-ton, 82-foot-long vessel by Salem shipbuilder, Retire Becket. The result was a ship of never-before-seen opulence—at least not in the Americas. The name Cleopatra’s Barge was inspired by lines in Shakespeare’s Anthony and Cleopatra.

A six-month-long voyage in 1817 took Crowninshield to 16 ports in Southern Europe on the Mediterranean. In 1818 Crowninshield became ill and died on board the ship. His family sold the vessel to King Kamehameha II of Hawaii in 1820. In April 1824 the boat was wrecked near the island of Kauai by a drunken crew.