Saddam's Yacht Belongs To Iraq

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Aug 12th 2008 at 7:02AM

Just a follow-up on a story we've been following for a while. The lavish 269-foot yacht which once belonged to Saddam Hussein will be headed back to Iraq. Sail World reports that though the Cayman island firm Sudeley, which is part-owned by King Abdullah of Jordan, told a French commercial court in Nice that it is the legal owner, that claim was rejected for lack of evidence. They ruled that ownership should be given back to Iraq. Saddam Hussein had ordered the lavish yacht in 1981 but never took delivery of it. He was afraid that it would be bombed and so he left it in Jeddah Harbor in the hands of the Saudi Arabian Royal Family, who named it the Royal Yacht Al Yamamah (The Dove). The yacht has accommodations for 28 in one master cabin, nine double cabins and four twin cabins as well as room for 35 crew. Rumor has it that the yacht has a hospital, swimming pools, gold taps, and a mosque as well as a missile defense system and a mini-submarine. She was renamed the Ocean Breeze and last year Sudeley tried to sell it for $34.45 million through Burgess.

Riviera Radio reports that the yacht has now left Nice port and is on its way to Greece and that she may end up anchored in Basra harbor and turned into a museum.

Gallery: Ocean Breeze