This is the cast brass main bell from the Steam-Sail Yacht IOLANDA of 1908. IOLANDA was designed by Cox and King and built by Ramage and Ferguson of Leith for Morton Plant of the New York Yacht Club. IOLANDA had a length of 310 feet overall and ran on a dual steel screw 185lb. engine generating 345NHP.
IOLANDA was one of the finest yachts of her day, her bow sweeping high off the water and sloping back into a graceful superstructure whose silhouette was topped with a tall funnel and twin masts. The man for whom she was built, Morton Plant, owned several shipping lines and IOLANDA was one of six yachts he was known to have owned.
Plant had connections to the Italian royal family and this vessel was named for the Principessa Iolanda Margherita Milena Elisabetta Romana Maria di Savoia b. 1901, the eldest daughter of the last king of Italy, King Victor Emmanuel III.
Meant as a cruising yacht, she was luxuriously appointed and upon the yacht's launch Plant sailed her on a 33,000 mile cruise through the Mediterranean and Far East.
In later years the IOLANDA was sold and used mainly as a charter vessel, though she became a survey ship during WWII when she was renamed WHITE BEAR.
