Brigantine Yankee
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 Brigantine Yankee abandoned on the reef at Avarua, Rarotonga | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 Germany | |
| Name | Emden |
| Builder | Nordseewerke, Emden, Germany |
| Renamed | Duhnen, 1919 |
| Captured | May 1945, at Schleswig by Royal Air Force |
 United States | |
| Name | Yankee |
| Builder | Converted at Brixham yards |
| Fate | Aground on a reef in Avarua, Rarotonga, 23 July 1964 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Gaff rigged schooner (as built) |
| Tons burthen | c. 260 t |
| Length |
|
| Beam | 21.5 ft (6.6 m) |
| Draft | 11 ft (3.4 m) |
| Propulsion |
|
| Sail plan | Brigantine |
The brigantine Yankee was a steel hulled schooner, originally constructed by Nordseewerke, Emden, Germany as the Emden, renamed Duhnen, 1919. As Yankee, it became famous as the ship that was used by Irving Johnson and Exy Johnson to circumnavigate the globe four times in eleven years.[1] She appeared on the cover of National Geographic in December 1959.
The Duhnen, built in 1911, was the last schooner the Germans built before the construction of steam powered ships. It was used first as a North Sea pilot vessel, taking pilots out to ships heading for Hamburg on the Elbe River (and back from those departing), and then for recreation during World War II by the Luftwaffe, and was captured by the British and used as an RAF recreation ship. The Duhnen was refitted and renamed Yankee at the Brixham yards. The new Yankee was 96 feet (29.3 m) overall, with a waterline of 81 feet (24.7 m), a maximum draft of 11 feet (3.4 m). The rig was changed to that of a brigantine with 7,775 square feet (722.3 m2) of canvas.
Johnsons
The brigantine Yankee was the second Yankee purchased by Irving Johnson and his wife, Exy (Electa). They bought it in 1946 with the help of a friend, film star Sterling Hayden. With the Johnsons, Yankee sailed the Caribbean and made four global circumnavigations with amateur crews on a share-expense basis. Each of these voyages was from Gloucester, Massachusetts, westward around the world via the Panama Canal and around the Cape of Good Hope and back to Gloucester, and took exactly 18 months.
The Johnsons had sailed their schooner Yankee around the world three times before World War II, so that their first trip in the brigantine was known as their Fourth World Cruise. It departed Gloucester on 2 November 1947 and returned on 1 May 1949, stopping at over one hundred mostly remote ports and islands, but also in Honolulu, Singapore, and Cape Town for the receipt of large shipments of canned food from S. S. Pierce in Boston. This voyage was described in the Johnsons' book Yankee's Wander-World.
These cruises were made on a three-year cycle, so that between each two, Yankee was on the northeast coast of America for two summers and one winter. During these winters, Capt. Johnson gave lectures on these voyages all over the country. In the summers, the Brigantine was under charter to the Girl Scout Mariners of America, taking groups of 16 scouts and four leaders on coastal voyages between Larchmont, NY, in Long Island Sound, and the Saint John River in New Brunswick, Canada.
The Johnsons' final voyage in the Yankee, made in 1956–58, was featured in the 1966 CBS/National Geographic television special, Voyage of the Brigantine Yankee. It was scored by Elmer Bernstein and narrated by Orson Welles.
The Johnsons sold the Yankee to Reed Whitney in 1958. He operated it during the summers of 1958 and 1959 in New England waters.
Sometime after that it was sold to Mike Burke of Miami Beach. Burke used the Yankee and the schooner Polynesia, on 10- to 14-day Windjammer Cruises in the Bahamas, hiring on amateur sailors.