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
A yacht is a sailing or power vessel used for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a , as opposed to a , such a pleasu ...
''Mandalay'' in the Caribbean.
E.F. Hutton's luxury yacht, ''Hussar IV''
![YachtHussar](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f3/YachtHussar.jpg)
''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
Burmeister & Wain was a large established Danish shipyard and leading diesel engine producer headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded by two Danes and an Englishman, its earliest roots stretch back to 1846. Over its 150-year history, it g ...
in
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
for
E. F. Hutton and his wife
Marjorie Merriweather Post
Marjorie Merriweather Post (March 15, 1887 – September 12, 1973) was an American businesswoman, socialite, and philanthropist. She was also the owner of General Foods Corporation.
Post used much of her fortune to collect art, particularly Im ...
. The 585-ton
luxury yacht
A superyacht or megayacht is a large and luxurious pleasure vessel. There are no official or agreed upon definitions for such yachts, but these terms are regularly used to describe professionally crewed motor or sailing yachts, ranging from to ...
had an iron-
hull and represented the epitome of maritime luxury and glamour in her class.
[ Interiors were designed by William Baumgarten & Co of New York, the first American firm to do the interior decoration of a ship abroad.] Upon her completion in Denmark King Christian X
Christian X ( da, Christian Carl Frederik Albert Alexander Vilhelm; 26 September 1870 – 20 April 1947) was King of Denmark from 1912 to his death in 1947, and the only King of Iceland as Kristján X, in the form of a personal union rather ...
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
The New York Yacht Club (NYYC) is a private social club and yacht club based in New York City and Newport, Rhode Island. It was founded in 1844 by nine prominent sportsmen. The members have contributed to the sport of yachting and yacht design. ...
, 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
Mary William Ethelbert Appleton Burke (August 7, 1884 – May 14, 1970) was an American actress who was famous on Broadway and radio, and in silent and sound films. She is best known to modern audiences as Glinda the Good Witch of the North ...
and Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
impresario
An impresario (from the Italian ''impresa'', "an enterprise or undertaking") is a person who organizes and often finances concerts, plays, or operas, performing a role in stage arts that is similar to that of a film or television producer.
Hist ...
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 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
A training ship is a ship used to train students as sailors. The term is mostly used to describe ships employed by navies to train future officers. Essentially there are two types: those used for training at sea and old hulks used to house classr ...
for United States Merchant Marine
United States Merchant Marines are United States civilian mariners and U.S. civilian and federally owned merchant vessels. Both the civilian mariners and the merchant vessels are managed by a combination of the government and private sectors, an ...
cadets, deployed patrolling coastal waters for the US Coast Guard
The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, multi ...
.[ Assigned to the US Maritime Service Training Station on ]Hoffman Island
Hoffman Island is an artificial island in the Lower New York Bay, off the South Beach of Staten Island, New York City. A smaller, artificial island, Swinburne Island, lies immediately to the south. Created in 1873 upon the Orchard Shoal by the ...
, 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
The Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) is the scientific research center of the Columbia Climate School, and a unit of The Earth Institute at Columbia University. It focuses on climate and earth sciences and is located on a 189-acre (64 h ...
DEO, a research unit of Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
.. 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
Continental drift is the hypothesis that the Earth's continents have moved over geologic time relative to each other, thus appearing to have "drifted" across the ocean bed. The idea of continental drift has been subsumed into the science of pla ...
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
William Maurice "Doc" Ewing (May 12, 1906 – May 4, 1974) was an American geophysicist and oceanographer.
Ewing has been described as a pioneering geophysicist who worked on the research of seismic reflection and refraction in ocean basin ...
, Bruce C. Heezen, 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 ...
, Jack Nafe, Frank Press
Frank Press (December 4, 1924 – January 29, 2020) was an American geophysicist. He was an advisor to four U.S. presidents, and later served two consecutive terms as president of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (1981–1993). He was the ...
, 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 Mid-Atlantic Ridge is a mid-ocean ridge (a divergent or constructive plate boundary) located along the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, and part of the longest mountain range in the world. In the North Atlantic, the ridge separates the North Ame ...
. The Vema Fracture Zone, 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
The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...
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
A trench is a type of excavation or in the ground that is generally deeper than it is wide (as opposed to a wider gully, or ditch), and narrow compared with its length (as opposed to a simple hole or pit).
In geology, trenches result from eros ...
to avoid confusion with the Vema Fracture Zone in the Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...
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 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
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...
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
Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...
.
* The Vema Channel is a deep trough in the Rio Grande Rise of the South Atlantic
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...
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
The Weddell Sea is part of the Southern Ocean and contains the Weddell Gyre. Its land boundaries are defined by the bay formed from the coasts of Coats Land and the Antarctic Peninsula. The easternmost point is Cape Norvegia at Princess Martha ...
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
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 ...
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
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
and damage to the SV ''Mandalay''.
References
External links
Voyages of the R/V Vema
RV Vema's science tracks of 1,225,000 nautical miles
S/V Mandalay
Sail 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