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The SV ''Mandalay'' is a three-masted
schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...
measuring pp, with a wrought iron hull. It was built as the private yacht ''Hussar (IV)'', and would later become the research vessel ''Vema'', one of the world's most productive oceanographic research vessels. The ship currently sails as the cruising yacht ''Mandalay'' in the Caribbean.


E.F. Hutton's luxury yacht, ''Hussar IV''

''Hussar'' (IV) was designed by
Cox & Stevens Cox & Stevens began in 1905 as a yacht design and commercial brokerage in New York City. The original principal partners were Daniel H. Cox, Irving Cox, and marine engineer Colonel Edwin Augustus Stevens Jr., son of renowned designer Edwin August ...
and built in 1923 by Burmeister & Wain in Copenhagen for
E. F. Hutton EF Hutton was an American stock brokerage firm founded in 1904 by Edward Francis Hutton and his brother, Franklyn Laws Hutton. Later, it was led by well known Wall Street trader Gerald M. Loeb. Under their leadership, EF Hutton became one of th ...
and his wife Marjorie Merriweather Post. The 585-ton luxury yacht had an iron-
hull Hull may refer to: Structures * Chassis, of an armored fighting vehicle * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a ship * Submarine hull Mathematics * Affine hull, in affi ...
and represented the epitome of maritime luxury and glamour in her class. Interiors were designed by
William Baumgarten & Co William Baumgarten & Co. was an interior design firm and the first American producer of Aubusson-style tapestries. The manufactory was active between 1893 and 1914. Tapestries In the 19th century, the most important producer of tapestries in ...
of New York, the first American firm to do the interior decoration of a ship abroad. Upon her completion in Denmark King Christian X was invited to inspect the ship prior to its maiden crossing to New York. It was one of the fastest yachts, breaking the transatlantic record in 10 days, 21 hours. The yacht was affiliated with the New York Yacht Club, and spent the winters in the
Florida Keys The Florida Keys are a coral cay archipelago located off the southern coast of Florida, forming the southernmost part of the continental United States. They begin at the southeastern coast of the Florida peninsula, about south of Miami, and e ...
with frequent guests such as actress Billie Burke and Broadway impresario
Florenz Ziegfeld Florenz Edward Ziegfeld Jr. (; March 21, 1867 – July 22, 1932) was an American Broadway impresario, notable for his series of theatrical revues, the ''Ziegfeld Follies'' (1907–1931), inspired by the ''Folies Bergère'' of Paris. He also p ...
, a fellow New Yorker whom Hutton liked to deep sea fish with. File:Hussarparlor1923.jpg, ''Parlor circa 1923'' File:Hussar dinning room.jpg, ''Dining Room circa 1923'' File:Hussar yacht 1923deckplan.jpg, ''Deck plan circa 1923'' File:Hussar iv yacht 1923.jpg, ''Profile of Hussar IV''


Norwegian yacht'', Vema''

In the late 1920s the Hutton's decided they wanted a larger yacht, so they commissioned the construction of the '' Hussar (V)'' (later
Sea Cloud ''Sea Cloud'' is a sailing cruise ship owned by Sea Cloud Cruises of Hamburg, Germany. Launched as a private yacht as ''Hussar V'' for Marjorie Merriweather Post in 1931, she later served as a weather ship for the United States Coast Guard and U ...
). The ''Hussar IV'' was put up for sale in September 1930, and eventually sold to Norwegian shipping magnate,
G. Unger Vetlesen Georg Unger Vetlesen (January 31, 1889 – March 24, 1955) was a Norwegian Americans, Norwegian-American shipbuilding, shipbuilder and philanthropist. Background Vetlesen was born in Oslo, Norway, the son of a well-known Norwegian surgeon. At ...
and his wife Maude Monell and renamed ''Vema'', a combination of Vetlesen and Maude.


U.S. WWII Service

During World War II, Maude Monell donated ''Vema'' to the American war effort. The vessel was put into service as a barracks and training ship for United States Merchant Marine cadets, deployed patrolling coastal waters for the US Coast Guard. Assigned to the US Maritime Service Training Station on Hoffman Island, her sailing area was listed as 14,000 sqf. After the war she was abandoned off
Staten Island Staten Island ( ) is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located in the city's southwest portion, the borough is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull an ...
until Louis Kenedy, a captain from Nova Scotia, salvaged the vessel. LDEO leased the vessel in 1953 and soon bought her for $100,000.


Research Vessel ''Vema''

''Vema'' started circling the globe as the first of the Lamont Geological Observatory research vessels (now the Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory
DEO Deo or DEO may refer to: People * Derek Oldbury (1924–1994), known as DEO, a British draughts champion Surname * Abhinay Deo, Indian film director and screenwriter * Ajinkya Deo (born 1964), Indian film actor * Ananga Udaya Singh Deo (born ...
, a research unit of Columbia University.. Displaying a black hull, she was used to collect samples of seawater and sediment cores, measure currents and heat flows, perform underwater photography and seismic studies, and map out ocean floors. The work on the ship helped to confirm the continental drift theory. By the time of her retirement in 1981, the ''Vema'' had collected data on a record track of . Notable scientists who worked aboard the ''Vema'' include Maurice Ewing,
Bruce C. Heezen Bruce Charles Heezen (; April 11, 1924 – June 21, 1977) was an American geologist. He worked with oceanographic cartographer Marie Tharp at Columbia University to map the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in the 1950s. Biography Heezen was born in Vinton, Io ...
, Ralph (Ralphy) Roessler,
J. Lamar Worzel J. Lamar Worzel (February 21, 1919 – December 26, 2008) was an American geophysicist known for his important contributions to underwater acoustics, underwater photography, and gravity measurements at sea. Life Worzel was born on February 21 ...
, Jack Nafe, Frank Press, and
Walter Pitman Walter George Pitman (May 18, 1929 – June 12, 2018) was an educator and politician in Ontario, Canada. Background Born in Toronto, Ontario, he received a Bachelor of Arts in 1952 and a Master of Arts in 1954 from the University of Toronto. He ...
, all of whose work was greatly facilitated by Marine Technical Coordinator Robert Gerard, who was responsible for the fitting and refitting of LDEO marine research vessels from the Vema through her successors, the Conrad, Eltanin, and , including the design and installation of numerous pieces of customized scientific measurement equipment critical to their research.


Seafloor features

* The ''Vema'' was instrumental in the exploration of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The
Vema Fracture Zone The Vema Fracture Zone is a fracture zone in the equatorial Atlantic Ocean. It offsets the Mid-Atlantic Ridge by 320 km to the left. Its transform valley has a depth of 5000m. The fracture zone can be traced for over 2500 km east to w ...
, crossing the Mid-Atlantic Ridge at , was named for her. G.R. Hamilton aboard RV Vema discovered this feature in 1956. * Vema Trench in the Indian Ocean is in fact a
fracture zone A fracture zone is a linear feature on the ocean floor—often hundreds, even thousands of kilometers long—resulting from the action of offset mid-ocean ridge axis segments. They are a consequence of plate tectonics. Lithospheric plates on eit ...
named trench to avoid confusion with the Vema Fracture Zone in the Atlantic Ocean mentioned above. Vema Trench crosses the
Central Indian Ridge The Central Indian Ridge (CIR) is a north–south-trending mid-ocean ridge in the western Indian Ocean. Geological setting The morphology of the CIR is characteristic of slow to intermediate ridges. The axial valley is 500–1000 m deep; ...
at . RV Vema discovered it in 1958. * During the seafloor explorations the
Vema Seamount Vema Seamount is a seamount in the South Atlantic Ocean. Discovered in 1959 by a ship with the same name, it lies from Tristan da Cunha and northwest of Cape Town. The seamount has a flat top at a mean depth of which was eroded into the seamoun ...
was discovered in 1959; the seamount rises from a depth of almost 5,000 meters to just 11 meters below sea level, and is located in the South Atlantic about 1,000 km west-north-west of Cape Town, at . * Vema Knoll at and Vema Gap at are located adjacent to each other, 500 km north of Puerto Rico. * The Vema Channel is a deep trough in the Rio Grande Rise of the South Atlantic at . Discovered during one of Vema's journeys, it has a depth of 4,646 m and a width of 18 km, serving as a conduit for the Antarctic Bottom Water and Weddell Sea bottom water.


Other research vessels of the LDEO

*, 1962–1989 *, 1962–1974 *, 1988–2005 *, 2004-


Cruising yacht ''Mandalay''

The ship was refitted again as a
cruising yacht A cruising yacht is a sailing or motor yacht that is suitable for long-distance travel and offers enough amenities to live aboard the boat, yet is small enough to not require a professional crew. A yacht that would require a professional crew ente ...
for the
Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...
under the name SV ''Mandalay'' (also ''Mandalay of Tortola'') with a sail area of > . The ship was operated by Windjammer Barefoot Cruises from 1982 until the operator went out of business in 2008. Mandalay subsequently was purchased at auction, refurbished, and used as specialty cruise ship in the Galapagos islands off Ecuador by Angermeyer Cruises. Most recently, the S/V Mandalay later sailed weekly out of Grenada for one and two-week cruises in the Grenadines for Sail Windjammer, Inc. However, Sail Windjammer announced in early 2021 that the company would be ceasing operations due to the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and damage to the SV ''Mandalay''.


References


External links


Voyages of the R/V VemaRV Vema's science tracks of 1,225,000 nautical milesS/V MandalaySail Windjammer S/V Mandalay
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mandalay Schooners Ships built in Copenhagen Research vessels of the United States University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System research vessels 1923 ships Cruise ships Columbia University New York Yacht Club Yachts of New York Yacht Club members Ships of the United States Coast Guard