Qualla: HMY Mary https://qualla.com/hmy-mary en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:13 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: HMY Mary https://qualla.com/hmy-mary HMY Mary: Introduction https://qualla.com/hmy-mary/ In 1660, a freshly restored King Charles II returned from exile to a kingdom that had executed his father, and the City of Amsterdam decided to make him a present. Among the silks and paintings and the so-called Dutch Gift was a small, lavishly decorated vessel built by the Dutch East India Company, copper-clad against barnacles, shallow-drafted so she could be sailed like the river barges of the Netherlands. They called her a jacht, from the Dutch jagen, to hunt. Charles named her Mary after his sister and put her to work crossing the Irish Sea. She would be the first of twenty-seven royal yachts he owned in twenty-five years on the throne, and the first to give the English language a new word: yacht.

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/k/x/hmy-mary-wp/gckx-hmy-mary-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full HMY Mary: A King's Toy and a King's Workhorse https://qualla.com/hmy-mary/ Mary was built for showing off. Her counter was carved and gilded, her interior fitted out for a sovereign who had spent his exile dreaming of comfort. Samuel Pepys mentions her in his diary, alongside the other royal vessels Charles raced for sport on the Thames. But Charles was...

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/k/x/hmy-mary-wp/gckx-hmy-mary-a-kings-toy-and-a-kings-workhorse.mp3 0:06 2 full HMY Mary: The Skerries in Fog https://qualla.com/hmy-mary/ On 25 March 1675, Mary was running eastbound from Dublin to Chester with twenty-eight crew and forty-six passengers aboard. Sometime before dawn, fog closed in over the southwest corner of the Skerries, a low cluster of reefs off the northern tip of Anglesey. She struck. The hull...

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/k/x/hmy-mary-wp/gckx-hmy-mary-the-skerries-in-fog.mp3 0:06 3 full HMY Mary: Two Clubs, the Same Month https://qualla.com/hmy-mary/ Mary lay forgotten until July 1971, when two amateur diving clubs found her independently and within weeks of each other. The Chorley Sub Aqua Club and the Merseyside Sub Aqua Club had both been working the Skerries when their members started bringing up bronze cannons cast with ...

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/k/x/hmy-mary-wp/gckx-hmy-mary-two-clubs-the-same-month.mp3 0:06 4 full HMY Mary: The First Protected Wreck https://qualla.com/hmy-mary/ Mary's looting helped force a change in British law. The Protection of Wrecks Act, passed in 1973, gave the government power to designate historically important wreck sites and prosecute anyone disturbing them. When the first designations went out in January 1974, Mary was on the...

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/k/x/hmy-mary-wp/gckx-hmy-mary-the-first-protected-wreck.mp3 0:06 5 full