There were yachtsmen who, in addition to giving their boats, defrayed
the cost of maintenance. Great craft such as G. W. C. Drexel's _Alcedo_
(already noted as sunk by a torpedo), A. Curtiss James's _Aloha_, J. C.
and A. N. Brady's _Atlantic_, A. C. Burrage's _Aztec_, I. T. Bush's
_Christabel_, H. A. Loughlin's _Corona_, J. P. Morgan's _Corsair_,
Robert T. Graves's _Emeline_, E. P. and J. W. Alker's _Florence_, Edgar
Palmer's _Guinevere_, George F. Baker, Jr.'s _Wacouta_, W. L. Harkness's
_Cythera_, Robert Goelet's _Nahma_, J. G. Bennett's _Lysistrata_, John
Borden's _Kanawha_, Henry Walter's _Narada_, Howard Gould's _Niagara_,
Horace G. Dodge's _Nokomis_, Vincent Astor's _Noma_, Mrs. E. H.
Harriman's _Sultana_, Morton F. Plant's _Vanadis_, P. W. Rouss's
_Winchester, Aphrodite_, the O. H. Payne estate; F. G. Bourne's
_Alberta_, and Edward Harkness's _Wakiva_--these great yachts among
other steam-driven palaces, passed into the hands of the Navy Department
in one way or another, and have performed valiant service. Some of them,
indeed, have ended their careers violently in service.

The government ripped out the costly interiors and converted these
panelled floating abodes of the wealthy into serviceable fighters, and
no doubt will retain those that survive when the war is ended. There
were instances where the owners of yachts and the Navy Department could
not agree on prices to be paid. The naval authorities finally suggested
that the owners should name one representative, and the Navy Department
another, and terms thus agreed upon. It was not, however, until the
Department appointed a special board, whose duty was to secure suitable
boats without further delay, that affairs began to proceed smoothly. The
first move was to have the International Mercantile Marine Company's
shipping experts act as agents of the special board, and from that time
on there was no further trouble.