A jack of all trades. From a trawler to a warship and a royal yacht (3 photos)

Sometimes it happens that one ship during its service can repeatedly change not only owners, but also countries, roles, and purposes. The bizarre fate of one of these ships will be discussed below.





The gunboat Illiria during her service in the Royal Italian Navy

In June 1917, a ship called Lamproie was laid down for the French Navy at the Chantier Augustin Normand shipyard in Le Havre. At that time, the Gardon project was created based on fishing trawlers. These were coastal patrol vessels. The choice of such ships as the basis for the project was based both on their high seaworthiness and on the urgent need. The First World War was ongoing, and the French naval command could not rule out sabotage by Austria-Hungary or Germany.

All nine units built were 49.5 m long, 7.6 m wide and had a draft of 3.3 m. The design displacement was 654 tons. The 550 hp power plant consisted of one triple-expansion steam engine, working on one screw. Steam was supplied by one Belleville boiler with mixed coal-oil heating. These boilers were previously intended for the subsequently unfinished battleship Flandre of the Normandie class. The maximum speed was 11 knots. The ships were armed with one 100 mm and one 47 mm gun.

Lamproie was launched in January 1918, and after various delays, entered service only on September 8 of the same year. The First World War ended on November 11, so the practical need for the converted trawlers became questionable. Nevertheless, Lamproie was in active service until May 1, 1919, patrolling the Atlantic coast of France.

France, devastated by the war, could not maintain a significant fleet. The first step was to get rid of the least useful ships. All ships of the Gardon class were decommissioned. Lamproie was disarmed, decommissioned and on June 17, 1919, arrived in the port of Rochefort. There she was put up for sale. The ship was laid up for almost a year. But on May 4, 1920, Lamproie and her sister ship Goujon were bought by the company Lascaret & Dupuis.

Soon the former patrol vessel arrived in Marseille, where its conversion into a cargo steamer began. This was quite simple and inexpensive, due to the fact that the designers not only took the design of a fishing trawler as a basis, but also did not change it much.

From 1920 to 1934, Lamproie actively worked as a fishing vessel. However, due to the economic crisis - the "Great Depression" - the company went bankrupt, and the former patrol ship was again put up for sale. That same year, it was bought by the Belgian aristocrat Baron Bayenz with the purpose of converting it into a yacht.

The baron paid for the services of the Marseille shipyards, where the trawler was thoroughly modernized. In particular, the steam engine was replaced with a diesel engine of the same power, cranes and fishing devices were dismantled, the layout of the interior spaces was changed, they were finished, etc. In addition, the Belgian renamed the vessel White Diamond and registered it in the UK, although de facto the yacht remained on the French Riviera. No details about the history of White Diamond from the moment the work was completed until the end of 1937 are known.

At the end of 1937, the Italian government became interested in the yacht. The wedding of the King of Albania Zog I Skanderbeg III to the Hungarian Countess Geraldine Apponyi was scheduled for April 1938. The Italians, who supported the Albanians and sought to establish the closest possible ties with them, decided to give the king a personal yacht. Their choice fell on a former French patrol ship.



Zog I Skanderbeg III, the first and last king of independent Albania in 1928-1939

However, they did not manage to conclude the deal in time for the wedding. The purchase took place only in June 1938. The yacht was brought to Italy, where it was given the grand name Albania, upgraded to a "royal" standard and handed over to King Zog I. Although Albania had a navy, it was quite insignificant. The royal yacht became part of it not only as one of the largest ships, but also as a flagship. However, she did not lead the fleet for long: already in April 1939, Italy occupied Albania and requisitioned all the ships.

The yacht Albania returned to the Italians, who renamed it Illiria and reclassified it as an auxiliary gunboat. It was armed with two 13.2 mm machine guns. On June 1, 1939, the boat joined the Royal Italian Navy and began service in the Adriatic. During World War II, Illiria not only patrolled the coast, but also served as a transport between the metropolis and the Dalmatian coast.





Albania as the yacht of the King of Albania, 1938-1939

When the government in Rome went over to the Allies on September 8, 1943, Illiria was in Split. The gunboat was able to arrive in Brindisi without interference from units loyal to the Germans, where it continued to be used as a patrol boat. In February 1944, the ship moved to Taranto. There, both machine guns were removed and it was used first as a transport, and then completely laid up.

After the end of World War II, Illiria, as a captured ship, was to be returned to Albania. But for unknown reasons, it remained in the Italian fleet. Formally, the ship was in active service as a gunboat, but de facto continued to stand in Taranto. In 1949, Illiria was excluded from the lists of the fleet, but this fact did not affect its service in any way. It continued to stand in the same place where it was left in February 1944. They remembered the former royal yacht only in 1958. But by that time there was no point in restoring anything on it, and on June 1, Illiria was sold for scrap to an Italian company.

Thus ended the winding journey of a vessel that had been a French patrol vessel and a fishing trawler, a wealthy Belgian's yacht under the British flag, a royal ship and flagship of the Albanian navy, and finally an Italian gunboat and transport. And the whole story is full of strange twists and turns, taking place against the backdrop of the main historical events of the first half of the 20th century.