Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 December 1888 — Astor’s Expensive Yacht. [ARTICLE]

Astor’s Expensive Yacht.

Brooklyn Eagle. Within a stone’s throw of a South Brooklyn pier recently were fifteen yachts, sloops and schooners, little and big. They represented $1,000,01)0 of capital. The highest priced was Mr. Astor’s big 273 feet long steam yacht Nourmahal, which lay looming up like an ocean steamer, The Nourmahal cost $300,090, and Mr. William Astor, her owner, uses her for about three months in the year; the other nine months she lies idle. The expense of running this leviathan toy is $6,00 J per month. ’Ey the necessary expense is meant the cost of fuel and the wages and keep of her crew. What Mr. Astor spends in entertainments, etc., on board, of course nobody knows but himself. The expense, therefore, of keeping the Nourmahal for a year, outside of her owner’s personal expenditures, is: Interest on money invested, $18,000; expenses for time she is in co mmissioß, $ 18,001: repairs, etc., each spring, about $5,000, total, $41,000. From these figures it would be easy to estimate how much the yacht would cost to keep should she be in commission the year round. About $100,003 a year would just about cover it.> Even c Sir. Astor, with all his wealth, could scarcely afford this, and so the Nourmahal lies idle most of the time.