Steam Yacht Thetis
- Charles Thrasher
- 24 hours ago
- 6 min read
In January 1909, a man strolled past the skating rink in Washington, N.C., and paused at the exhibits being prepared for Corn Judging Day. It was the annual Agricultural Fair sponsored by the Norfolk and Southern Railroad. Farmers from throughout Beaufort County competed. It was obvious that there were too few volunteers for the work to be done, putting the corn grown in different sections of the county on display in the appropriate boxes. He rolled up his shirt sleeves and helped.
He was a portly man with a precisely trimmed mustache. His northern accent and tailored clothes clearly indicated he was an outsider, but no one knew he owned the Thetis, the 127-foot steam yacht moored at Washington’s waterfront. For the past 15 years Charles Henry Fuller had spent his winters in Washington onboard the Thetis, the yacht usually arriving in November and departing in April for its home port in Rhode Island.
Fuller was so impressed with the size of the corn and the intensity of the competition that he stayed on and helped serve roasted oysters and side dishes to the thousands of farmers attending Corn Judging Day.
Later he approached the Washington Chamber of Commerce and offered six sterling silver cups as prizes for future competitions. With him on his visit to the Chamber was I. H. Page, president of the J. Stevens Tool and Arms Company and a guest onboard the Thetis. Stevens Arms billed itself as the “largest producers of sporting arms in the world.” [1] Not to be outdone, Page offered ten guns as additional prizes. [2]
Fuller later wrote the Chamber of Commerce, “The farmers’ welfare I have at heart, as a number have extended the courtesy of hunting on their places. I do not know of a better way to get square with them than to offer the cups.” [3]
Racing the Pamlico
Besides hunting, Fuller had an avid interest in racing motorboats. He became a member of Washington’s Tar Heel Motor Boat Club. In 1912, he brought with him on board Thetis a motorboat to race on the Pamlico River during Corn Judging Day.
The six entries in the race were driven by Robert Fowle, Mr. Pratt, Frank A. Moss, Dr. R. T. Gallaher, M. A. Smith, and Charles Fuller himself. Judges were Samuel Baker, professional captain of the Thetis, F. C. Kugler, president of Kugler Lumber Company, and Capt. C. L. Morton of the U.S. Naval Reserves.
The course was ten miles and two laps, starting at the county bridge across the Tar-Pamlico River, past Washington’s waterfront and Castle Island, ending at the Norfolk and Southern Railroad bridge.
A large crowd gathered on the waterfront, expecting the boats to start together, but the start was staggered, each boat with a timed handicap. According to the Washington Daily News, “…the race was over and at an end before the spectators realized that there had been any race.”
Fuller delivered a respectable performance, finishing behind Frank Moss on corrected time, averaging 16.07 miles per hour over the course. [4]
Apparently, Fuller lost a $100 bet against M. A. Smith. He could well afford it.
The Millionaire
Charles Fuller was the only son of George H. Fuller, an inventive jeweler and clever businessman from Pawtucket, Rhode Island. George practically invented a new industry for the manufacture of jewelry supplies and became a very wealthy man.
The Fullers were an old New England family whose first American ancestor came from England in 1636.
Charles started work with his father when he was 20, two years after he graduated from public school. His father made him partner in the business and changed the name to George H. Fuller & Son. For several years, he was a successful traveling salesman for the company. In 1892, his father died and Charles inherited the business. [6]
By the time he bought the Thetis and became a frequent visitor of Washington, he was a millionaire several times over.
High Society
The Fullers became integrated into Washington high society. Mrs. George Leach entertained them with ices, cake, and punch. [7]
Mrs. A. M. Dumay invited Mrs. Fuller and her daughter-in-law to her West Main Street house for an evening of embroidering and crocheting. [8]
And Mrs. Fuller invited the town’s elite to her birthday party onboard the Thetis, including Mrs. John H. Small, Mrs. J. D. Grimes, Mrs. George T. Leach, Mrs. A. M. Dumay, Mrs. Frank Moss, Mrs. John Gorham, Mrs. F. H. Rollins, Misses Bettie Harvey and Mary Elizabeth Thomas. The size of the yacht easily accommodated the crowd. [9]
Steam Yacht Thetis at War
The Thetis was 127 feet long with a beam of 16 feet, four inches and a draft of 7 feet, 4 inches, and capable of 12 knots. She was built in 1901 by George Lawley & Son, Massachusetts. The Lawley yard had a long history of producing outstanding yachts, including the successful America’s Cup defenders Puritan and Mayflower. By 1908, they had built the steam yachts Alcedo, Aquilo, Satilla, Thetis, Kaleda, Carmina, Calumet, Anona, Visitor, Cigarette, Kehtoh, and Halawa. Several of those steam yachts, including the Thetis, would serve as patrol boats during World War I.
Charles Fuller owned her until 1917, when she was purchased by the U.S. Navy for use as a patrol vessel and commissioned the USS Thetis (SP-391).
Steam yachts of the period were “…luxurious in the extreme, with carved wooden paneling, ornate decoration, music rooms, dining rooms, and libraries…the level of interior finish and indulgence was scarcely credible.” [10]
The Thetis was fitted with two 3-pounder guns and two machine guns. She was stripped of furnishing and decorations; her topsides were painted gray; machine guns were installed on her upper decks; below deck, cutlasses and rifles lined bulkheads of paneled wood. [11]
Larger yachts guarded overseas convoys and the coast of France. The Thetis served an undistinguished military career patrolling the Atlantic coast between Chatham, Massachusetts, and New London, Connecticut.
One of those larger yachts, the Wenonah, also a product of the Lawley yard, was 163-feet long. She steamed across the Atlantic and served as an escort for convoys between Gibraltar and Tunisa. She mistakenly attacked the French submarine Watt, killing Captain Bourély and wounding five crewmen, one of whom later died from his wounds.
The Thetis was decommissioned after the end of the war in 1919 and sold to Herman Lee Meader of New York City in 1920. [12]
Meader was an architect who lived in the Waldorf Hotel penthouse, surrounded by a rooftop Italian garden, where he held elaborate parties attended by musicians, artists, writers, prizefighters, chess players and others. At one party Meader staged a fight between a black snake and a king snake.
Besides his work as an architect, Meader published several collections of epigrams, including Reflections of the morning after, Thro’ the rye, Four Ways to Win a Woman and Alimony. [13]
Meader's ownership of the Thetis was a far different experience than that of the Fuller family.
Charles Henry Fuller died in September 1933, 74 years old. His last visit to Washington on his beloved Thetis was the winter of 1916, the year Woodrow Wilson was re-elected. Ironically, Wilson’s campaign slogan was “He kept us out of war.”
It's not known what became of the Thetis.