LOA: 58’0″ / 17.67m – LOD: 50’ 0” / 15.24m – LWL: 42’0″ / 12.80m – Beam: 13’7” / 4.14m – Draft: 7’5” / 2.26m – Design Number: – Designer: Frank M. Prothero – Current Owner: Adam Weissmuller – Year Launched: 1931 – Built By: Frank M. Prothero – Hull Material: Wood – Displacement: 23 tons – Former name(s) Santa Guadalupe – ON: 231002 – Engine: Detroit 353 – Home Port: San Diego, CA
Historical:
In 1927 Bob Prothero and Ernest McDonald opened the Prothero & McDonald Boat Company in a floating seaplane hangar, and Frank Prothero came aboard as shop foreman in 1930. In 1931 the brothers built for their own use the 42-foot schooner Allure, which they later sold to Johnny Weissmuller (1904-1984), an Olympic swimming Gold Medalist also known for playing Edgar Rice Burroughs’ ape man Tarzan in films of the 1930s and 1940s.
The Prothero & McDonald Boat Company was on the west side of Lake Union, at 2046 Westlake Drive W., where the Electric Boat Company is today: see the site from the air on Google Here
Tarzan, My Father” by Johnny Weissmuller, Jr
“Almost every weekend, he [Johnny] raced his Allure to Catalina Island against Humphrey Bogart in his Santana and Errol Flynn in his Sirocco. All three would bet on the outcome. On one of these excursions, after they had anchored at Catalina, Dad went aboard the Sirocco to collect money from Flynn, who had lost the race. Errol was drunk and belligerent. The Sirocco had a small, old-fashioned cannon mounted on her bow — the kind that had a fuse at the touchhole — and Flynn pointed this cannon at Johnny’s boat, took the cigar from his mouth, and lit the fuse, muttering, ‘I’ll sink you, you sumbitch!’ Johnny ran over and kicked the muzzle upwards (it was actually a tiny thing, mounted on a swivel, so he’s lucky he didn’t break his foot), and the two men stood there in awe as the cannonball shot straight up in the air and then descended vertically. It missed them by a scant few feet and dropped cleanly through the upper deck of the Sirocco. After a few seconds, Flynn burst into uproarious laughter. The cannonball was not the explosive kind, and the boat was rafted up, so there was no danger of her sinking, but even so it could have been a disaster.”
Provenance (The Wall of Remembrance – The Owners, Crew & Notable Guest):
Owner/Guardian: (1931) Prothero & McDonald Boat Company Owner/Guardian: (1935) – Johnny Weissmuller – renamed Allure to Santa Guadalupe, in honor of his wife Lupe. Divorced in 1939, changed vessel name SANTA GUADALUPE back to ALLURE, official number 231002. Actor: Errol Flynn Actor: John Wayne Actor: Humphrey Bogart Actor: David Niven Owner/Guardian: Guy S. Folsom Owner/Guardian: Adam Weissmuller
LOA: 43′9″ / 13.33m – LWL: 30′0″ / 9.14m – Beam 8′9″ / 2.66m – Draft 6′4″ / 1.93m – Sail Area: 1,085sq ft / 100.8sq m – Hull Number: 626 – Designer: N.G. Herreshoff – Design Number: 626-1 – Original Owner: Alphonse H. Alker – Current Ownet: Private, Rockport, ME – Built: 1904
Historical
NY-1 Alera, built for the Alker brothers of Manhasset Bay, she was the first completed yacht in the series of eighteen NY30’s and left the roles of the NYYC in the early 1920’s.
MIT Museum – Many yachting historians consider the NYYC 30s to be the most successful one-design class of all time. Twelve of the 18 still exist and most are still sailing, including Alera.
The production speed of this class of 18 boats was astonishing. Alera was built in 35 days and each of the following 17 were completed in succeeding one week intervals. This speed was made possible by the HMCo system, evolved years earlier, of designing interchangeable parts that could fit on future boats, especially one-design boats. In this case, HMCo had three hulls being built over molds while other components, such as deckhouses, spars, hardware and sails, were being fabricated by other craftsmen.
Within ten years of their first one-design, HMCo had honed a system of design and construction that was approaching mass-production, in an industry dominated by custom work. This speedy construction is especially amazing when considering that HMCo was simultaneously building at least six other significantly larger vessels that were mostly custom designs. In a little over one year, about 300 workers completed 27 boats from 43′ to 111′.
A lost treasure until 2004, when she was rediscovered in Hamilton, Ontario, purchased and shipped to Samples Shipyard in Boothbay, Maine where her new owners completed a full restoration for the 2005 100th Anniversary Season.
Provenance (The Wall of Remembrance – The Owners, Crew & Notable Guest):
Owner/Guardian: (1904) – Alphonse H. Alker Owner/Guardian: Private, Rockport, ME
Salvatore Salvia
Here’s an excellent video about Alera sailing in Maine. https://youtu.be/IWJ8TzeQxhc CSO will soon release a short video on NY30 Banzai, Sail No. 15.
LOA: 134’6” / 41.00m – LOD: 134’6” / 41.00m – LWL: 100’0” / 30.50m – Beam: 26’3” / 8.00m – Draft: 12’7” / 3.85m – Displacement: 170 tons – Ballast: – Hull material: aluminum – Sail Area: 7,707 sq ft – Designer: Bruce King – Built by: Astilleros Mefasa S.A., San Juan De Nieva, Spain – Year Launched: 1993 – Current Name: Alejandra – Original Owner: Private – FLAG: United Kingdom (GB) – Location: Marine Traffic
Historical:
Bruce King Yacht Design Comments – Like WHITEFIN, ALEJANDRA is configured with two cockpits, the aft for steering and sailing, with the center cockpit primarily for lounging and dining. The companionway entrance is at the forward end of the center cockpit. Descending through a circular staircase, flanked with curved Cuban Mahogany raised panels, one arrives in the entrance lobby. Aft is a passageway to the staterooms. Forward through an arched vestibule, with double sliding doors, is the main salon. The main salon, with a fireplace as a focal point forward, is flanked with seating on either side. To port of this seating is the dining area. A long arched vestibule provides a feeling of open separation between the two areas. Forward is the galley, crew mess, two double crew cabins, and captain’s cabin.
Moving aft from the entrance lobby through a paneled hallway are three guest cabins, two to starboard and one to port. All guest cabins have suite heads and showers. Also to port is the entrance to the main engine room beneath the center cockpit, and the auxiliary equipment room beneath the pilot house. A short stairway leads to the pilot house where most navigation and radio equipment is located. From the pilot house a short stairway leads on deck while another leads down into the owner’s cabin.
All joiner work is beautifully executed by the builder, with extensive use of lightweight core materials where suitable. All design work for ALEJANDRA was performed by Bruce King Yacht Design. After extensive preliminary design, the naval architecture was generated in conjunction with the vast structural and systems engineering required on a project of this magnitude. The interior design was also carried out by Bruce King Yacht Design, from the complex overall arrangement to graceful joinery details and intricate hand carvings. The result is a homogeneous design throughout, with repeated design elements both above and below deck. This integrated approach, while more lengthy, avoids the design fragmentation that can occur when separate design firms are employed.
Provenance (The Wall of Remembrance – The Owners, Crew & Notable Guest):
LOA: 45.93′ / 14m – LWL: 29.52′ / 9m – Beam: 9.51′ / 2.9m – Draft: 6.56′ / 2m – Displacement: 8 tons – Hull material: Wood – Designer: Axel Nygren – Summer Port: Österskär – Built by: Stockholm Boat Building, Liljeholmen, Stockholm – Year Built: 1896 – Restored By: Jan Thulin – Current Name: Alca – Original Owner: Martin Geber – Current Owner: Gunnar Schrewelius – Sail Area: 1,119.45 sq ft / 104 sqm – Engine: Vetus M4
Historical:
Alca was designed by Axel Nygren, built by August Plym and launched in 1896 at Stockholm Båtbyggeri AB, Liljeholmen. She was commissioned by Banking Director Martin Geber and designed to be light but strong. In addition, the requirement was that she be both comfortable and quick. The result was a beautiful and very fast boat that the first sailing summer seemed to win everything that went on to win in the Nordic countries. She won 9 of 11 races among the best boats of the time in the Nordic countries. Martin Geber was obviously a wealthy man. Among other things he owned Fågelbro Säteri (1903-1918) and after his death funds were donated to Geber’s convalescent home.
Restoration:
Alca has been in the Stockholm archipelago for almost all years. Jan Thulin did a thorough renovation when he bought her in the early 70’s and then did another thorough renovation at the end of his ownership. Then, among other things, the keel if completely with split lateral plane and the cockpit was rebuilt with, among other things. steering wheel. He registered her as SK95 in 1983.
When Thulin crashed, Lagerin / Lindbo took over and completed Thulin’s renovation and installed a 35 hp hydraulic-powered BMC engine. Lagerin / Lindbo realized that Alca needed a thorough renovation of eg. team and started this work but collapsed in the mid-90s.
Owners Comments:
When I bought Alca in February 2004 she had not sailed for eight years and was partly in pretty bad shape. Now the hull and furnishings have been renovated to basically original condition.
For the summer of 2016, the boat got a new fork rig (mast, boom, sail, point, nail bench etc). In the summer of 2018, the old BMC engine gave up and was replaced in the autumn by a Vetus.
Provenance (The Wall of Remembrance – The Owners, Crew & Notable Guest)::
1896-1898 Bank Director Martin Geber Alca 1899-1907 Consult A Hoglund 1908-1912 Auditor Emil A Kusel 1913-1916 Bachelor of Laws Karl Håkansson 1917-1917 Captain CF af Klintberg Alma 1918-1920 Sperling Manon 1920-1927 S Gullström Wild Duck 1927-1928 Major Helge V Jung (future Supreme Commander ) 1928-1962 Col Justus Holmgren 1962-1966 C Lorge Alca 1966-1969 st handelskompisar, Janhem? 1969-1970 Lennart (Jan O) Nylöf 1970-1986 Jan E Thulin 1987-2003 Anders and Stefan Lagerin and Fredrik Lindbo 2004- Gunnar Schrewelius
LOA: – LOD: 82′ 8″ / 25.19m – LWL: – Beam: 20′ 8″ / 6.29m – Draft: 9′ 8″ / 2.94m – Displacement: – Sail Area: – Original Owner: – Year Launched: 1920 – Designed by: – Built by: Rijkswerf, Amsterdam, Netherlands – Hull Material: – Former name(s): Albatross, Alk, Orion, loodschoener No.3, loodsschoener No.2, – Status: Sunk in a white squall, 125 mi (201 km) west of the Dry Tortugas in 1961
Historical:
The Albatross was built as Albatros a schooner at the state shipyard (Rijkswerf) in Amsterdam, Netherlands, in 1920, to serve as a pilot boat (named Alk) in the North Sea. The ship spent two decades working the North Sea before being purchased by the German government in 1937. She served as a radio-station ship for submarines during the Second World War. In 1949, Royal Rotterdam Lloyd bought her for use as a training ship for future officers of their company (Dutch merchant marine). The fact that she was small made her ideal for this kind of work, and the dozen trainees could receive personal attention from the six or so professional crew. While under Dutch ownership she sailed the North Sea extensively, with occasional voyages as far as Spain and Portugal.
Under Ernest K. Gann Stewardship
The American aviator, filmmaker and novelist Ernest K. Gann purchased the Albatros in 1954, re-rigged her as a brigantine, and she cruised the Pacific for three years. According to Charles Gieg (The Last Voyage of the Albatros), the Albatros survived a tsunami in Hawaii during this time. She was also used in the 1958 film Twilight for the Gods (starring Rock Hudson and Arthur Kennedy), whose script and the underlying novel by the same title were written by the Albatros’ owner Gann.
Twilight for the Gods
is a 1958 American Eastman color adventure film directed by Joseph Pevney and starring Rock Hudson and Cyd Charisse. The story is based on the novel Twilight for the Gods by Ernest K. Gann. Plot After being court-martialed and discharged from the Navy, Captain Bell (Rock Hudson) turns to drink. Reduced to skippering a rundown brigantine in the South Seas. Bell comes into contact with a group of passengers and crew members who are almost as mixed up as he is: Charlotte (Cyd Charisse), a Honolulu prostitute on the lam from the authorities; Hutton (Leif Erickson), a third-rate show biz entrepreneur, Wiggins (Richard Haydn), an erudite beachcomber; Feodor and Ida Morris (Vladimir Sokoloff, Celia Lovsky) a refugee couple; ineffectual missionary Butterfield (Ernest Truex); washed-up opera star Ethel Peacock (Judith Evelyn); and second mate Ramsay (Arthur Kennedy), an all-around rotter. In other words, it’s “Grand Hotel” at sea. During a treacherous, life-threatening storm at sea, the true characters of the passengers and crewmen are revealed — for better or worse.
Ocean Academy and loss
In 1959, Christopher B. Sheldon’s Ocean Academy, Ltd., of Darien, Connecticut, acquired her to use her for trips combining preparatory college classes and sail training. Over the next three years, Christopher B. Sheldon Ph.D. and his wife, Alice Strahan Sheldon M.D., ran programs for up to fourteen students in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific Ocean.
From fall 1960 to spring 1961, a crew of four instructors (including the Sheldons), a cook and 13 students sailed the Albatross from the Bahamas through the Caribbean to the Galápagos Islands and back to the Caribbean; a fourteenth student had been on the ship for the first part of the voyage, but had left in Balboa, Panama. At the beginning of May, the Albatross was en route from Progreso, Mexico, to Nassau, the Bahamas. On 1 May, skipper Sheldon decided that they would make a stop at one of the Florida keys to refuel.
Shortly after 8:30 am on 2 May 1961 the Albatross was hit by a sudden squall about 125 miles (200 km) west of the Dry Tortugas. She heeled over suddenly and sank almost instantly, taking with her Alice Sheldon, the ship’s cook George Ptacnik, and students Chris Coristine, John Goodlett, Rick Marsellus, and Robin Wetherill (John Goodlett was on deck in the last minutes, but probably became entangled in some of the lines or a sail of the sinking ship while freeing a lifeboat, and Christopher Coristine reportedly went below deck in an attempt to save someone else). As there had not been time to send out a radio distress signal before she was lost, the remaining crew used her two lifeboats to make way towards Florida. Around 7:30 a.m. on 3 May, the two boats were found by the Dutch freighter Gran Rio, which took the survivors to Tampa, Florida.
According to Sheldon, the squall hitting the Albatross was a white squall, i.e. an unpredictably sudden, very strong squall. His opinion was that the Albatross was essentially a stable, “safe” ship, and that the crew of teenagers—who had already spent about eight months on board—were sufficiently trained, but that this rare weather phenomenon left the ship no chance. Critics of this view, however, have argued that refittings of the Albatross over the years by her various owners had made her top heavy, which affected her secondary stability, that is, her ability to remain stable or even right herself after tilting to the side, as opposed to capsizing. In her times as North Sea pilot schooner, the ship had a far smaller and lower sail area, which means that the force of the wind did not have as much power and as powerful an angle as it did the day she sank. Almost 40 years after the loss of the Albatross, Daniel S. Parrott reanalyzed some of the documents about the ship and comparable ships in his book, Tall Ships Down. He suggested that due to the ship’s impaired stability, even a “normal” squall could have sunk her; according to him, only the expert handling of the ship and the habitual prudence of the ship’s captain(s) to reduce sail area early had prevented the refitted Albatross from capsizing in previous strong wind conditions.
In 1932, the German sail training ship Niobe suffered a similar fate, killing 69. Parrott draws parallels to the sudden losses of the Marques (1984) and the original Pride of Baltimore (1986), which were similarly affected by large sail areas; in the case of the Marques, this was likewise the result of refittings over the years of her existence.
Aftermath and narrations of the ship’s loss
The loss of the Albatross prompted the United States Coast Guard to undertake a thorough review of the instantaneous stability—i.e. the ability of ships to remain upright—and design requirements for sailing school ships. The new rules were codified in the Sailing School Vessels Act of 1982.
Narrations of the last voyage of the Albatross were published by two of the survivors; Charles Gieg, who had been one of the students on board the ship, and Richard Langford, who had been the English instructor.
The 1996 film White Squall, starring Jeff Bridges and directed by Ridley Scott, presents a fictionalized version of the ship’s loss. The film suggests that the Albatross was sunk by a white squall, although it does not mention the concerns about the seaworthiness of the ship.
After the loss of the Albatross, Sheldon worked for the Peace Corps and briefly started another sailing school. He died on October 5, 2002, of pancreatic cancer, in Stamford, Connecticut. He was 76.
Provenance (The Wall of Remembrance – The Owners, Notable Guest, and Reunion Information):
Owner: (1920-1937) – North Sea Pilot Boat Owner: (1937-1949) – The German government Owner: (1949-1954) – Royal Rotterdam Lloyd, training ship Owner: (1954-1959) – Ernest K. Gann, aviator, filmmaker and novelist Owner: (1959-1961) – Christopher B. Sheldon’s Ocean Academy, Ltd.
References
Gieg, Charles F.; Sutton, Felix (1962). The Last Voyage of the Albatross. Duell, Sloan and Pearce.
Langford, Richard E. (1 November 2001). White Squall: The Last Voyage of Albatross. Bristol Fashion Publications. ISBN 978-1-892216-36-6.
Parrott, Daniel S. (26 January 2004). Tall Ships Down: The Last Voyages of the Pamir, Albatross, Marques, Pride of Baltimore, and Maria Asumpta. McGraw-Hill Professional. p. 56. ISBN 978-0-07-143545-1. Retrieved 20 June 2019.
