Excuse me, Your Majesty King Mohammed Vi, Amir Al-Muminin (Commander of the Faithful). Isn’t that our yacht?

By Colin W. Sargent

Most of the ghostly society yachts built by Bath Iron Works in the 1920s and 1930s have been summarily sunk, scuttled, scrapped, smelted, or smashed to smithereens.

Most.

An extraordinary exception–a royal surprise–is owned and operated by a king.

The luxury 53-meter staysail schooner formerly known as Black Douglas, built in 1930 for the great-grandson of John A. Roebling, designer of the Brooklyn Bridge, has surfaced out of obscurity and is now the toast of the Mediterranean as the Royal Yacht of His Royal Highness, King Mohammed VI of Morocco, dubbed “The Cool King” by Time Magazine.

Registered in the Cayman Islands, home-ported in Nice, and named El Boughaz I, which refers to the eastern Alexandrian portal to the Mediterranean, she was a wedding present to King Mohammed from “the Fire Sheikh Zayed, president of the United Arab Emirates,” according to the international blogsite forummarine.forumactif.com.

The yacht is significant because she’s one of the first pleasure schooners of her type ever to boast a steel hull.

With the help of Sen. Collins’s office, we’re navigating some diplomatic straits and hope to catch up with His Royal Highness to ask him how the old girl sails. Stay tuned.

Says Sen. Collins: “From the great sailing vessels of the past to the most advanced warships of today, ‘Bath Built is Best Built.’ The long, 83-year life of the schooner Black Douglas and her fascinating career demonstrate that those words are not merely a slogan, but an ongoing commitment to excellence by the skilled men and women of Bath Iron Works.”

King Mohammed VI was named the “Heir Apparent and Crown Prince” at birth, according to royalark.net. Mohammed “attended Mohammed V University at Agdal, achieving a bachelor’s in law in 1985,” as the Embassy of the Kingdom of Morocco’s online site reports. “In 1988, he gained a Diplome d’Etudes Approfondies in public law,” with further study in Brussels, Belgium. Next stop, the south coast of France, where “he was graduated from the French University of Nice Sophia Antipolis with a Ph.D. in law in October 1993…He was given the title of Major General on July 12, 1994.”

Royalark.net confirms “on July 23, 1999, he succeeded his father, Hassan II, as King of Morocco…Mohammed is married to Salma Bennani (H.R.H. Princess Lalla Salma) as of March 21, 2002.”

The BBC fills in the family: “They have two children together, Crown Prince Moulay Hassan (b. 2003) and Princess Lalla Khadija (b. 2007).”

At 10 and 6, the young brother and sister must love the breeze El Boughaz I kicks up as she races around the Med.

Reconditioned to the moon in a manner appropriate to the King of Morocco, this cool schooner has been seen hanging out in Marseilles and other tropical points of interest in the Mediterranean along the Côte d’Azur, according to NavSource. (Maybe BIW should also adopt the motto, “Build Locally, Sail Globally.”)

What a fantastic advertisement for Made in Maine–a ship fit for a king.

At press time, NavSource reports she’s for sale: “$7 million to $8 million.”