SV Mandalay

The SV Mandalay is a three-masted schooner measuring 163.75 ft (49.91 m) pp,[2] 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.[2]

History
Name
  • 1923 SV Hussar
  • 1934: SV Vema
  • 1953: RV Vema
  • 1982: SV Mandalay
Owner
Operator1953 - 81: Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory[1]
BuilderBurmeister & Wain, Copenhagen, Denmark[2]
LaunchedFebruary 2, 1923[2]
CompletedMarch 1923, rebuilt 1942 (USN), 1952 (Louis Kenedy, NS Canada), 196? (Lamont Geological Observatory), 1981 (Mike Burke, Windjammer Barefoot Cruises), 2010 (Angermeyer Cruises, Ecuador)
Identification
Fatepresently operated by Sail Windjammer, https://sailwindjammer.com/
General characteristics
Typeschooner
Tonnage585 GRT[2]
Length49.9 m (163 ft 9 in) (pp)[2]
Beam10.1 m (33 ft 2 in)[2]
Depth15 m (49 ft 3 in)[3]
Decksthree
Propulsion900 BHP V12 GM diesel circa 1942
Speed16 knots under full sail
Capacity72 passengers (as Mandalay)[3]
Crewabout 28 (as Mandalay)[3]

E.F. Hutton's luxury yacht, Hussar IV
Yacht Hussar IV in the 1920s

Hussar (IV) was designed by Cox & Stevens and built in 1923 by Burmeister & Wain[4] in Copenhagen for E. F. Hutton and his wife Marjorie Merriweather Post. The 585-ton luxury yacht had an iron-hull and represented the epitome of maritime luxury and glamour in her class.[1][5] Interiors were designed by William Baumgarten & Co of New York, the first American firm to do the interior decoration of a ship abroad.[6] Upon her completion in Denmark King Christian X was invited to inspect the ship prior to its maiden crossing to New York.[6] 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,[7] and spent the winters in the Florida Keys with frequent guests such as actress Billie Burke and Broadway impresario Florenz Ziegfeld, a fellow New Yorker whom Hutton liked to deep sea fish with.[8]

  • Parlor circa 1923
    Parlor circa 1923
  • Dining Room circa 1923
    Dining Room circa 1923
  • Deck plan circa 1923
    Deck plan circa 1923
  • Profile of Hussar IV
    Profile of Hussar IV

Norwegian yacht, Vema

In the late 1920s the Huttons decided they wanted a larger yacht, so they commissioned the construction of the Hussar (V) (later Sea Cloud). The Hussar IV was put up for sale in September 1930,[9] 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
Vema during World War II with Merchant Marine trainees
Trainees aboard Vema, July 1942[10]

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,[11] deployed patrolling coastal waters for the US Coast Guard.[1] Assigned to the US Maritime Service Training Station on Hoffman Island, her sailing area was listed as 14,000 sqf.[12] After the war she was abandoned off Staten Island until Louis Kenedy, a captain from Nova Scotia, salvaged the vessel.[1][13] LDEO leased the vessel in 1953 and soon bought her for $100,000.[1]

Research Vessel Vema
Vema Fracture Zone

Vema started circling the globe as the first of the Lamont Geological Observatory research vessels (now the Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory [LDEO]), 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 1,225,000 nautical miles (2,269,000 km).[1] Notable scientists who worked aboard the Vema include Maurice Ewing, Bruce C. Heezen, Ralph (Ralphy) Roessler, J. Lamar Worzel,[14] Jack Nafe, Frank Press, and Walter Pitman, 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 RV Maurice Ewing, including the design and installation of numerous pieces of customized scientific measurement equipment critical to their research.

Seafloor features

Other research vessels of the LDEO

Cruising yacht Mandalay
Out of commission in Grenada, St George Anchorage

The ship was refitted again as a cruising yacht for the Caribbean under the name SV Mandalay (also Mandalay of Tortola)[2] with a sail area of > 20,000 square feet (1,900 m2).[3] The ship was operated by Windjammer Barefoot Cruises from 1982 until the operator went out of business in 2008.[20] 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.[21] 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.[22]

References
  1. Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory. "Marine Operations: Vema (1953-1981)". Retrieved January 31, 2009.
  2. "Mandalay (7738383)". Miramar Ship Index. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
  3. Mandalay information
  4. Pacific Marine Review. J.S. Hines. 1924.
  5. Arts & Decoration. A. Budge. 1923.
  6. Barton, Amos (September 1923). "Interior Decoration on the High Seas". Arts & Decoration: 328.
  7. MacKay, Robert B. (2014-06-09). Great Yachts of Long Island's North Shore. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4396-4566-6.
  8. Rubin, Nancy (2004-01-04). American Empress: The Life and Times of Marjorie Merriweather Post. iUniverse. ISBN 978-0-595-75202-7.
  9. "E.F. Huttons to Sell Yacht". timesmachine.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2020-05-24.
  10. "Hoffmann Island, merchant marine training center off Staten Island, New York. Trainees aboard the schooner Vema". Library of Congress. Retrieved 2020-05-16.
  11. U.S. Coast Guard Bulletin. Coast Guard. 1939.
  12. Hoffman Island Archived 2009-02-16 at the Wayback Machine access date February 3, 2009
  13. Wertenbaker, William (1974). The Floor of the Sea: Maurice Ewing and the Search to Understand the Earth. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 9780316931212.
  14. Worzel, J. Lamar (1959). "Extensive deep sea sub-bottom reflections identified as white ash". Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 45 (3): 349–355. Bibcode:1959PNAS...45..349W. doi:10.1073/pnas.45.3.349. PMC 222564. PMID 16590389.
  15. Vema (Library Association of Rockland) County
  16. Heezen, B. C.; Gerard, R. D.; Tharp, M. (1964). "The Vema Fracture Zone in the Equatorial Atlantic". Journal of Geophysical Research. 69 (4): 733. Bibcode:1964JGR....69..733H. doi:10.1029/JZ069i004p00733. S2CID 130845561.
  17. "IHO-IOC GEBCO Gazetteer of Undersea Feature Names, March 2011 version; www.gebco.net". GEBCO. Archived from the original on 2012-04-21. Retrieved 2011-11-16.
  18. Antarctic: Flying fish at the Vema seamount. Archived 2012-08-02 at archive.today Accessed February 2, 2009
  19. AMS glossary Accessed February 2, 2009
  20. Windjammer Cruises Officially Out of Business, April 2, 2008
  21. "Sail Windjammer". Sail Windjammer. Retrieved 2020-05-06.
  22. "Sail Windjammer". Sail Windjammer. Archived from the original on February 10, 2021.
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