"Light of My Soul"

For the third time in the history of the potent Astor tribe, a yacht named Nourmahal (Arabic for "Light of 'My Soul") cut the waters of New York Harbor. The new Nourmahal is the biggest and sleekest of them all--2,000 tons, 264 feet overall, twin-screw Diesel engines developing 3,200 horsepower, speed of 16 knots, all-steel hull. Skipper-owner Vincent Astor, Brother-in-law Prince Obolensky, several friends and crew of 45 had brought her from Kiel, Germany, where she had been built by the firm of Fried & Krupp from plans by Theodore E. Ferris, Manhattan naval architect. She had met some storms on the way, but she conquered them almost as easily as the 59,957-ton Leviathan. Virtually unsinkable, she was built to tease all manner of weather and unruly seas.

She becomes the flagship of the New York Yacht Club, of which Vincent Astor is Commodore for 1928 (TIME, Feb. 6). In many ways, Commodore Astor is the perfect yachtsman. The management of his real estate properties is not sufficiently arduous to prevent his spending days and weeks contemplating the sea from one of the three decks of the "Light of My Soul." It might indeed be impossible for the perfect yachtsman to be a mentally aggressive fur-trader and land-getter, as was Commodore Astor's famed great-grandfather, John Jacob Astor.

The Nourmahal cost Commodore Astor $600,000 and it will cost him some $100,000 a year to keep her running. She has nine staterooms with baths, a living room with fireplace, a library, five dining rooms.