Gracie S.

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The Gracie S. , Wanderer from 1959 , was an American pilot schooner built in 1893, i.e. a schooner (sailing ship) used as a pilot boat . The Gracie S. was used off San Francisco until 1947 . After a change of ownership, Sterling Hayden acquired the two-master with which he sailed to Tahiti in 1959.

Ship history

In December 1893, the Gracie S. was delivered by the Union Iron Works in San Francisco to replace the pilot boat George F. Peabody - the only sailing ship that the shipyard, founded in 1883, was usually used for ships like the protected cruiser USS Olympia , the battleship USS Oregon and steamships were known for the merchant navy . The Gracie S. was named after the daughter of the sugar trader and shipowner John D. Spreckles. Its first owners were several men, including the pilot John McColloch.

In 1900 the Gracie S. hit the headlines when a whale grabbed a chain hanging from the ship and pulled it out to sea. In September 1914, the schooner was one of the first pilot boats on the west coast of the USA to be equipped with a machine, a 120-hp Bolinder from Sweden, which allowed the ship to reach a speed of 9 knots (16.7 km / h) at 280 revolutions per minute . The engine also ran several devices on board, such as an electric generator, and used around 30 liters of gasoline per hour. The Gracie S. was then used as an auxiliary sail , whereupon only a topsail was used and her bowsprit was shortened.

During the First World War, the US Navy registered ships along the west coast of the USA from 1916 that could be used for patrol trips if the USA were to become involved in the war. The Gracie S. was given the number SP-919 (SP = Section Patrol ), but, unlike many other ships (especially pure motor ships), the Navy never bought and used it.

Finally the bowsprit of the Gracy S. was completely removed. Nevertheless, she was still used under sails for decades. At the latest in the thirties the ship was still a jib - tree , which were sailing maneuvers easier.

In 1947 the Gracie S. was decommissioned and bought by Captain George Moller of Oakland . Moller initially wanted to use her as a charter ship, but instead soon sold her to actor Sterling Hayden , who had gone to sea as a young man. Hayden intended to take the schooner to Tahiti ; but when he got married, he changed his plans and sold the Gracie S. to the photographer Ed Kennell from Seattle , Washington state .

A year after his divorce, Hayden bought the ship back in 1956, renamed it Wanderer and underwent lengthy repairs in Sausalito near San Francisco. Contrary to a court order in January 1959 not to bring his children out of California, Hayden secretly planned to take them to Tahiti. He put together a crew of over twenty from friends and fellow sailors he had found through advertisements, and allegedly ran from San Francisco to Southern California - but in fact he was heading for the South Seas. His divorced wife tried to get the US Coast Guard to stop the ship and also tried various legal channels. But the hikers , who were not equipped with a radio anyway, and their crew came to Tahiti unmolested (see Sterling Hayden ). After a year-long cruise in the South Seas, which he recorded in his autobiography Wanderer , which was written a little later , Hayden returned to the USA and therefore sold the schooner in 1960.

In November 1964, the ship drove on a charter trip in the Rangiroa Atoll near Papeete on a reef. An oval wooden ring that the Gracie S. wore as a name plate on her stern is still preserved in the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park .

Ship dimensions

length 92 feet (28 meters)
bowsprit 35 feet (10.7 meters)
Space content 86 GRT ; 91 GRT according to US Navy data

literature

  • Tom Cunliffe, Adrian Osler: Pilots . WoodenBoat Publications, 2001, pp. 219, 224–229, 233, 238–241, 252, 259, 261, google books (with pictures by Gracie S. )
  • Sterling Hayden: Wanderer . Sheridan House, 1963/1998, ISBN 1-57409-048-8 (Autobiography; google books )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Tom Cunliffe, Adrian Osler: Pilots . WoodenBoat Publications, 2001, p. 227 (English), google books
  2. ↑ a b 83 feet according to Tom Cunliffe, Adrian Osler: Pilots . WoodenBoat Publications, 2001, pp. 227, 238-239 (English), google books
  3. ↑ "SP" #s and "ID" #s - World War I Era Patrol Vessels and other Acquired Ships and Craft on Online Library of Selected Images: US Navy Ships - Listed by Hull Number , history.navy.mil (English); Retrieved May 15, 2007
  4. ↑ "SP" #s and "ID" #s - World War I Era Patrol Vessels and other Acquired Ships and Craft numbered from SP-900 through SP-999 on Online Library of Selected Images: US Navy Ships - Listed by Hull Number , history.navy.mil (English); Retrieved May 15, 2007
  5. ↑ a b c Tom Cunliffe, Adrian Osler: Pilots . WoodenBoat Publications, 2001, p. 238 (English), google books
  6. ↑ To Break Out . In: Time , February 9, 1959 (English); Retrieved May 14, 2007
  7. ↑ Hayden on his Way to South Seas . In: United Press International , January 24, 1959. Reprinted in Appendix by Sterling Hayden: Wanderer . Sheridan House, New York 1998, p. 250, google books
  8. ^ Tom Cunliffe, Adrian Osler: Pilots . WoodenBoat Publications, 2001, p. 239 (English), google books
  9. ↑ 83 feet according to Tom Cunliffe, Adrian Osler: Pilots . WoodenBoat Publications, 2001, p. 227 (English), google books
  10. ↑ US Navy Ships - Listed by Hull Number . history.navy.mil (English); Retrieved May 15, 2007