''Fantome'' was a 679-ton
staysail schooner owned by
Windjammer Barefoot Cruises
Windjammer Barefoot Cruises was a leisure cruise line based in Miami Beach, Florida. Founded in 1947 by Michael Burke (businessman), Michael Burke, the company scheduled one and two week cruises in the Caribbean and Central America, using a flee ...
in Miami, Florida. Completed in 1927 by the
Duke of Westminster
Duke of Westminster is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created by Queen Victoria in 1874 and bestowed upon Hugh Grosvenor, 3rd Marquess of Westminster. It is the most recent dukedom conferred on someone not related to the ...
, she was purchased by Windjammer in 1969, and became flagship of the fleet. During her twenty-nine years of service in this regard, ''Fantome'' offered cruises in the Caribbean and the Bay of Honduras. She was lost in October 1998 during
Hurricane Mitch
Hurricane Mitch is the second-deadliest Atlantic hurricane on record, causing over 11,000 fatalities in Central America in 1998, including approximately 7,000 in Honduras and 3,800 in Nicaragua due to cataclysmic flooding from the slow motion ...
.
Early years
Originally ordered for the Italian navy but was purchased before completion by the
Duke of Westminster
Duke of Westminster is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created by Queen Victoria in 1874 and bestowed upon Hugh Grosvenor, 3rd Marquess of Westminster. It is the most recent dukedom conferred on someone not related to the ...
, who finished her as a yacht (launched in 1927). Westminster used her only a few years before she changed hands twice in short order. It is often said that she was acquired by the Irishman
Ernest Guinness
Arthur Ernest Guinness (2 November 1876 – 22 March 1949) was an Irish engineer and a senior member of the Guinness family. He usually went by the name of Ernest.
Family
Ernest was the second son of brewing magnate Edward Guinness, 1st Earl o ...
, a senior member of the
Guinness family
The Guinness family is an extensive Irish family known for its accomplishments in brewing, banking, politics, and religious ministry. The brewing branch is particularly well known among the general public for producing the dry stout Guinnes ...
, but he owned the
''Fantome II'', now named the ''Belem''.
She was in the
Pacific
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
in the late 1930s and when war broke out in Europe in 1939, she was in
Alaska
Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...
n waters. Reluctant to cruise further or return to Ireland, he elected to lay her up in
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
for the duration of hostilities. At the end of the war she was stranded in
Portage Bay
Portage Bay is a body of water, often thought of as the eastern arm of Lake Union, that forms a part of the Lake Washington Ship Canal in Seattle, Washington.
To the east, Portage Bay is connected with Union Bay—a part of Lake Washington— ...
for 14 years, barred by
King County from sailing pending the payment of back taxes.
Windjammer
In 1969, Windjammer owner and founder Michael Burke flew to Greece to purchase the schooner directly from
Aristotle Onassis
Aristotle Socrates Onassis (, ; el, Αριστοτέλης Ωνάσης, Aristotélis Onásis, ; 20 January 1906 – 15 March 1975), was a Greek-Argentinian shipping magnate who amassed the world's largest privately-owned shipping fleet and wa ...
. He bought her, sight unseen, in exchange for a freighter. Windjammer then set about refurbishing ''Fantome'', which became the flagship of their fleet of six vessels.
Loss
![SV Fantome stern view](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/SV_Fantome_stern_view.jpg)
On 24 October 1998, ''Fantome'' departed the harbor of Omoa,
Honduras
Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...
for a planned six-day cruise.
Hurricane Mitch
Hurricane Mitch is the second-deadliest Atlantic hurricane on record, causing over 11,000 fatalities in Central America in 1998, including approximately 7,000 in Honduras and 3,800 in Nicaragua due to cataclysmic flooding from the slow motion ...
, then over away in the Caribbean Sea, was expected to pose a risk to Jamaica and possibly the Yucatán Peninsula. Captain Guyan March decided to play it safe by heading for the Bay Islands and wait for the storm to pass.
By dawn on the following day, however, Mitch seemed to change course. ''Fantome'' immediately changed course for
Belize City
Belize City is the largest city in Belize and was once the capital of the former British Honduras. According to the 2010 census, Belize City has a population of 57,169 people in 16,162 households. It is at the mouth of the Haulover Creek, wh ...
, where she disembarked all of her passengers and non-essential crew members. The schooner then departed Belize City, first heading north towards the
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...
, in order to outrun the storm. Storm predictions proved extremely difficult, as the steering currents in Hurricane Mitch were very weak. When word reached ''Fantome'' that Mitch would most likely hit the Yucatán before she could get out of harm's way, March changed course for the south. It was too early to know that he was heading directly into the storm's path.
The plan was to make for the lee side of the island of
Roatan. In case Mitch made landfall in the Yucatán or Belize, by being on the southern side of the island, it would provide her with enough protection to hopefully keep it from getting damaged by large swells and high winds. However Mitch, now a
Category 5 hurricane with winds up to 180 mph (285 km/h), took a jog towards the south, directly towards Roatan.
As Mitch moved in on Roatan and Honduras, ''Fantome'' made one desperate attempt to flee to safety, now heading east towards the Caribbean. Mitch's forward motion picked up, though, and ''Fantome'' was unable to outrun the storm. Around 4:30 p.m. on 27 October 1998, with Mitch having weakened but still at Category 5 intensity, ''Fantome'' reported that she was fighting winds in seas. They were just south of Mitch's eyewall. Radio contact was lost with ''Fantome'' shortly after that.
On 2 November, a helicopter dispatched by the British destroyer discovered life rafts and vests labeled "S/V Fantome" off the eastern coast of
Guanaja
Guanaja is one of the Bay Islands of Honduras and is in the Caribbean. It is about off the north coast of Honduras, and from the island of Roatan. One of the cays off Guanaja, also called Guanaja or Bonacca or Low Cay (or just simply, The C ...
. It was all that was found of ''Fantome.'' All 31 crew members aboard perished and a memorial service was held for them on December 12, 1998.
See also
*
Belem (ship)
References
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fantome
Fantome
Fantome
Shipwrecks in the Caribbean Sea