made in maine

Such is the legend of J.P. Morgan’s Bath-Iron-Works-built Corsair IV that British entrepreneur Neil Young command- ed Yantai Raffles Shipyard to build him a 21st century replica. Now one of the world’s largest luxury motor , Nero can be yours to charter for $475,000 per week. To learn what happened to the original Corsair IV, read on.

Where does a go to drop her final anchor?

By Michael L. Grace

n the brink of disappearing miliating fate, Newell believed BIW could River Clyde in Scotland, and L. E. Thibault, forever, Bath Iron Works was make a comeback building premium yachts a leading Bath businessman, to join Newell brought back to life by Wil- of top-notch American design, craftsman- in relaunching Bath Iron Works Corpora- liamO S. “Peter” Newell in 1927, and a yacht , and quality. His enthusiasm con- tion in 1927. named Vanda made it happen. vinced naval architect Archibald Main, Luck was on their side: The great Phila- Bath Iron Works had slid into decline born to shipbuilding on the banks of the delphia shipyard William Cramp & Sons when the venerable shipbuilding compa- was facing liquidation. Meanwhile, Ernest ny was put up for auction in 1925. A spec- B. Dane, a summer visitor to Seal Harbor ulator and scrap metal dealer from New as well as a prominent Boston investor and York bought Bath’s key industry for a ham- president of the Brookline Trust Company, urce

o mer price of less than $200,000. Equipment was looking for someone to build his new- was sold off; ship-fitters, joiners, welders, est yacht. Newell had landed his first con- and carpenters were out of a job; and the tract: the Vanda yacht. plant gathered dust for two years. In 1927, it changed hands again and was put to use Starry Starts: making paper pie plates. Vanda, named for a tropical orchid, VANDA & HI-ESMARO burgess yachts; navs Determined to save Bath from this hu- departs Bath to large crowds in 1928. Newell spread the word among old BIW

O c t o b e r 2 0 1 7 4 3 made in maine

hands, and before long, over 300 men were papers and wire services across the country laboring over the 230-foot Vanda. Skilled cover Vanda’s launch. By 1929, in the midst craftsmen set about creating the yacht’s prize of the financial crash, Bath Iron Works was features–a luxurious dining salon paneled in said to be the busiest shipyard in America. black walnut, a grand master stateroom, and Soon BIW was commissioned to build a number of guest staterooms. an even bigger luxury yacht–a 266-foot In a savvy PR move, Newell had news- cruiser for Hiram Edward Manville,

From top: Brochures and adverts celebrate the elegance and luxury of the Bath Iron Works yachts. Top right: A flyer tempts travelers to cruise to Acapulco aboard theCorsair . In a dark twist of fate, the yacht later breached and was abandoned off the coast of Acapulco. Above left: Tinplate heir William B. Leeds bought the Caroline and renamed her Moana in 1938; Moana had brushes with stardom as a muse for a Gilbey’s Gin poster (center) and frequent host to Ernest Hemingway (aboard the Caroline, right).

4 4 p o r t l a n d m o nthly magazine More Loans. More Choices! Chairman for the Johns-Manville Corpo- ration. Dubbed “the asbestos king” (Johns- Manville produced the material), he was uncle to socialite Tommy Manville, who married 13 different times and once held the Guinness Book of World Records title for the shortest marriage. After one divorce, Tommy lamented to the press, “She cried, and the judged wiped away her tears with my check book.” Bath artisans created replicas of the Swedish crown emblazoned over the stateroom beds– Estelle had just married into the Swedish Royal family. Own It! Designed by Henry J. Gielow and chris- With PeoplesChoice Mortgages tened the Hi-Esmaro, yachting enthusiasts dubbed Manville’s strikingly handsome We have a variety of loans available new boat the most beautiful on the seas. Anticipating that Manville’s daughter, Es- to qualified applicants. telle, would use the Hi-Esmaro, Bath arti- sans created replicas of the Swedish crown emblazoned over the stateroom beds–Es- • VA Loans • Mobile Home telle had just married Count Folke Berna- dotte of the Swedish royal family. The yacht • FHA Loans • Land was launched by Mrs. Manville in June of 1929 in the presence of almost the entire population of Bath. • USDA Loans • Construction During the 1930s, the Vanda and Hi-Es- maro were a familiar sight at the nation’s ...and more! great yachting races and cruising the coast of Maine. These large yachts would each employ a crew of 50 to 60 members, some- Call our mortgage team (207) 282-4156 times even carrying a surgeon and barber, and a large number these crewmen hailed from Deer Isle.

CORSAIR IV hen Corsair IV slithered down the greased ways of Bath Iron Works on April 10,

race 1930,W John Pierpont Morgan’s black-hulled G . L yacht launched a career as the biggest and most elegantly appointed private yacht ev- ichael

M er built in the USA. She was the fourth Cor- sair to fly the Morgan colors–each yacht a NMLS #449242 PeoplesChoiceME.org urtesy little bigger, faster, and more comfortable o c than the last. TheCorsair IV generated ma-

O c t o b e r 2 0 1 7 4 5 Made in maine jor media attention at the time, sparking a Easter Island. The following year, he sailed quote so familiar it seems trite. “What are Caroline II was even for the Yucatan to join a scientific expedi- the costs for operating such a yacht?” de- tion, returning to America with an orange- manded one reporter. Morgan quickly re- rumored to be the colored throne belonging to a king said to torted, “Sir, if you have to ask that question, have ruled in Central America more than you can’t afford it.” chosen honeymoon 1,000 years before. For Bath Iron Works, the Corsair IV was yacht for Edward These floating palaces of luxury and their a crowning achievement, unequivocally de- millionaire owners were a constant source livering Newell, Main, and Thibault’s prom- Windsor VIII and of gossip and speculation among the press ise to capitalize on BIW’s legacy and provide and the public during the hard years of the yachts at a cost for American millionaires. Wallis Simpson. Depression. From Paducah to Dubuque, lo- cal papers filled their pages with wire ser- he $2.5M yacht, dubbed the vice stories about famous guests, wild ex- “Princess of the Sea,” was a thing was an impressive sight, bearing a black travagance, and long cruises. Caroline II of beauty with her -ship steel hull with a 36-foot beam and 14-foot was even rumored to be the chosen hon- bowT and teak interior. But for all the press draft. Aras (“Sara” spelled backward, Ch- eymoon yacht for Edward Windsor VIII coverage of Corsair’s size and accommoda- isholm’s mother’s name) was powered by and Wallis Simpson. For Vanda owner Er- tions, there were rarely more than a half- two large eight-cylinder Winton diesel nest Dane, this public scrutiny posed a true dozen guests aboard. The Archbishop of engines. Throughout the 1930s, Chisholm danger. Dane received ransom notes from Canterbury, Cosmo Gordon Lang, was an and his family cruised New England ev- people who threatened to kidnap his two- annual guest while the Morgans cruised in ery summer, escaping the harsh northern year-old grandson. It was the same time as Europe. And while the yacht had none of winters on cruises to Havana, Cuba, and the Lindbergh kidnapping trial. Dane went the gold faucets and marble floors report- the Caribbean. public, telling reporters he’d put his grand- ed in the press, claims that the Corsair IV son under constant guard. housed no bar were entirely true. Morgan Johnson eventually sold the Caroline in was a teetotaller. 1938 to William B. Leeds, the tinplate heir, If making money was J. P. Morgan’s vo- who refurbished the yacht and renamed it cation, then yachting was his avocation– the Moana. Leeds was close friends with he rarely mixed the two. The legendary Errol Flynn and Ernest Hemingway, who American financier was quoted as saying, were frequent guests upon the Moana. “You can do business with anyone, but you Leeds made lengthy cruises in the Carib- can only sail with a gentleman.” He guard- bean, California, Hawaii, and the South ed the privacy that the yacht afforded him Pacific. Besides being a sportsman adven- jealously. Once when a group of photogra- turer, he also used his new yacht to carry phers edged up to the ship’s side to try for food, clothing, and medical supplies to the pictures of the financier, Morgan threat- The Caroline II was sumptuously designed for Eldridge inhabitants of the Pitcairn Islands and the ened to turn a hose on them if they did not Johnson, featuring four decks and an on-board elevator. leper colonies of the Society Islands. leave instantly. CAROLINE II Watery Graves The Aras was built for Oxford Paper Company magnate One of the last major yachts to be built by The era of America’s luxury yachting came Hugh Chisolm Jr. and later became the Harry Truman’s Bath Iron Works during the 1930s was the to an end as World War II approached. The presidential yacht. See our story “Dream Boat,” May 2014, Caroline II, designed for Eldridge R. John- Vanda, Hi-Esmaro, Corsair IV, Aras, and at portlandmonthly.com/dreamboat. son. At 279 feet in length and with a 2,400- Caroline would be soon shrouded in cam- ton displacement, the Caroline II was the ouflage, hulls painted a dull gray, luxurious second largest private yacht built in Amer- staterooms transformed into military crew ica at that time. She was four decks deep, quarters. But where did fate take them? equipped with an elevator, and capable of The Navy acquired theVanda from Er- carrying a crew of 50. nest Dane in 1942 and assigned her the Johnson was a wealthy industrialist and name USS San Bernardino. She served as a the founder of Victor Talking Machines weather station ship and was used by Admi- Company, often regarded as the first true ral King to scurry among the Pacific Islands

ARAS race G .

In 1931, Newell secured a contract from media conglomerate of the 20th century. In when he was Chief of Naval Operations. L Hugh J. Chisholm Jr., the Oxford Paper 1929, Johnson sold his company to RCA. The Navy decommissioned the ves-

Company king and railway magnate. Bath Caroline II was his retirement project–but sel in 1946. Charles Francis Coe, publish- ichael Iron Works would build the Aras II to re- she was more than just a pleasure craft. er of the Palm Beach Post, bought the Van- M place the Aras I built by the original BIW Twenty scientists sailed with Johnson in da but put her back on the market within urtesy o in 1924. The 243-foot-long motor yacht 1931 in search of the “lost civilization” on the year, where she was snapped up by so- c

4 6 p o r t l a n d m o nthly magazine MAINE MARITIME MUSEUM

Pull Together: Maritime Maine in the 1914-1918 Great War

Hi-Esmaro was Bath Iron Works’s second commission. She was dubbed “the most beautiful boat on the seas.”

Courtesy of Naval History and Heritage Command cialite shipping heiress Andrea “Bubbles” Luckenbach. The heiress sentVanda to a On view: October 7, 2017 through May 6, 2018 Tampa shipyard to be converted into a “ba- nana boat,” the first in a fleet of refrigerated vessels for her shipping company, the An- www.MaineMaritimeMuseum.org des Line, that would work the fruit trade be- tween Central America and . But like most things in Miss Luckenbach’s life, from 243 Washington Street • Bath, Maine • 207-443-1316 her tumultuous relationship with her father to her marriages (including being shot four times by her former husband, Frederick Hammer), the proposed steamship compa- ny was off to a rocky start. Before theVanda could touch the water, the Andes Line was being sued, and Miss Luckenbach counter- sued. The fleet of “banana boats” never -ma terialized, and no record remains of when or where the Vanda was scrapped.

iram Edward Manville’s Hi-Es- maro was purchased by the Na- vy in June 1940 and convert- edH into a coastal named the USS Niagara. Out at sea while the Japanese at- tacked Pearl Harbor, she served in the Pa- cific and became the Navy’s first motor- topped boat tender. The ship once called “the most beautiful yacht in the world” was attacked by Japanese Kamikaze in deep - ters of New Guinea. None of her 136 crew was killed or seriously injured, but the Hi- Esmaro was lost forever.

TheCaroline transformed into a mo- tor torpedo boat tender responsible for pro- viding logistics to torpedo boats in remote areas of the Pacific. Named theUSS Hi- lo, the one-time luxury yacht saw a good (Continued on page 76)

O c t o b e r 2 0 1 7 4 7 made in maine

End Games (continued from page 47) deal of battle during her service–even sur- viving Kamikaze attacks in the San Juani- co Straits. After the war, she was decom- missioned with four battle stars and sold to Pillsbury & Martignoni Shipping Bro- kers. From here, Caroline’s trail goes cold. The yacht’s whereabouts remains a mystery to this day, though some records claim she was scrapped in 1958.

or the Aras, at least, the glory days weren’t quite over. Commis- sioned the USS Williamsburg, the ArasF was converted to a during the war, but with duties in and the East Coast, she stayed mostly out of harm’s way. In 1945, the Williamsburg replaced the USS Potomac as the presidential yacht to Harry S. Truman. Truman loved the Wil- liamsburg, and together they cruised the Potomac River and re- gions, occasionally venturing into the open sea for cruises to Florida, , Cu-

furniture . fine art . pottery . jewelry . bags . linen . leather goods . photography . glassware . fine art . glassware . potteryfurniture . jewelry . bags linen leather goods photography ba, and the Virgin Islands. The BIW yacht 65 Washington Avenue | Portland, Maine 04101 | 207.835.0590 hosted such foreign notables as Secretary of State George Marshall; President Miguel Alemán of Mexico; and two successive Brit- ish Prime Ministers, and Clement Attlee. President Dwight D. Eisenhower was

Saturday Nights President Truman lounges on the afterdeck of the U.S.S. Williamsburg, in Key West, Florida. Left to right, Charles Murphy, counsel to the President; President Truman; Admiral Robert 7:30 Dennison; press secretary Charles Ross.

less enamoured with the yacht, and the Williamsburg was decommissioned after one very short journey and transferred to the National Science Foundation, where she floundered for nearly 50 years. There was Local Guests. a two-year stint as a hotel--mu- seum in Pennsville, New Jersey, followed Local Music. by several years as a floating restaurant in Local Awkward Silence. nearby Marlboro Marina. Later, the for- Maine's Only Late Night Talk Show mer Aras yacht was sent to Italy, where bro- kers tried and failed to find a buyer with the guts and imagination to recreate her former glory. Their tired sales pitches didn’t work, and the yacht was finally scrapped at La

7 6 p o r t l a n d m o nthly magazine A verse from a song sung by sailors of the USS Niagara (née Hi-Esmaro), lost in battle in the Solomon Islands:

Sleek Hi-Esmaro, the pleasure ship, Built for a sportsman’s pride. Trivial, jaunty, and pleasure bound, Comforts on every side… Now are you consecrated, girls: Blackened and burned you lie. Fair Hi-Esmaro the rich man’s yacht That died as the bravest die!

Spezia in 2016. And what about John Pierpont Morgan Jr.’s crown jewel, the Corsair IV? Morgan would surely never have imagined his prize yacht serving the British Admiralty during World War II before meeting a tragic end as a converted in California, but that’s exactly where the tides took her. We Have All The Delici s In edients In the wake of the war, surviving cruise were limited, particularly on the West To Keep Y r H e W m & Sav y Coast. The magnificent pre-war Canadian Voted Greater Portland’s “Best of the Best” Pacific and Japanese liners that once roamed Butcher Shops Two years in a row m

o this stretch of coastline had been brutally sunk in seagoing battles. Spotting a gap in Open Daily 8am-6pm • 799-3374 • 101 Ocean Street, South Portland the market, the Skinner and Eddy Corpora- tion, owners of the Alaska Steamship Com- pany, created Pacific Cruise Lines in 1946. The newly formed subsidiary immediately ciety - ssmaritime.c

So went looking for a ship–and quickly found its star. TheCorsair (the IV was dropped) rical o was taken to Todd Shipyards in ist

H for repair and then sailed to the Victoria Machinery Depot in Victoria, Canada, for aritime conversion to a luxury cruise vessel. M William F. Schorn Associates of New und York was responsible for outfitting accom- So modations for its 82 passengers. TheCor - sair’s staterooms were much larger and n; Puget o more commodious than normally expect- ed on shipboard. No expense was spared in furnishing each room with the very finest of

dministrati materials available. All bedrooms and state- A rooms were fitted with carpets and air-con- rds o ditioning, practically unheard of at the time. ec R Top European chefs were hired to pre- rchives and A nal o ati N . S . U

The magnificentCorsair met a watery grave off the coast of m left: o Acapulco in 1949. The ship was abandoned and can been seen fr only by scuba divers in the crystal blue waters.

O c t o b e r 2 0 1 7 7 7 Made in maine

pare haute cuisine for the Corsair’s guests. A total of 76 crew members and officers worked aboard the new cruise ship, mak- ing the passenger-to-crew ratio almost one-to-one, equaling or surpassing the most high-end cruise ships operating to- day. Each was responsible for the sole pur- pose of catering to the slightest desire of the carriage trade passengers.

he new Corsair made her de- but on September 29, 1947, offer- ing two-week cruises from Long Beach,T California, to Acapulco, Mexico. Tickets averaged $600–more than a quar- ter of a typical American family’s income in 1947. Despite the high cost, demand was high and wait lists lengthy. During the summer of 1948, the Corsair was repositioned to serve Alaskan tourism. out of Vancouver, British Colum- bia, she provided the first deluxe two-week cruises ever offered to the Inside Passage. Corsair’s new career was smooth sailing, until tragedy struck in November, 1949. During a cruise of the Mexican Riv- iera, Corsair breached a rock and beached at Acapulco. There was no loss of life–her crew and 55 passengers were put ashore in lifeboats and evacuated, but the Corsair was determined to be a total constructive loss and abandoned to Davy Jones’s Lock- er. Today her legacy lives on only for divers willing to explore the remains of the vessel ICONIC DESIGN deep in the warm seas off Acapulco. There would be no more Bath Iron ICONICBACKED DESIGN BY Works luxury yachts built following the war. Taxes were sky high and millionaires would soon look to Europe for new luxu- BACKEDSUPERIOR BY ry yachts. They wouldn’t be staffed by Deer Isle mariners and would no longer fly the PERFORMANCESUPERIOR American flag, instead registered under foreign flags to avoid U.S. taxes. The grand PERFORMANCE days of American luxury yachting had

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Michael L. Grace is a journalist and writer-producer for TV & Visit your local KitchenAid brand retailer for more information on the full lineup of KitchenAid® appliances Films. He was the original co-producer/co-writer of the musi- ★ ES B cal Snoopy, based on Charles M. Schulz’s Peanuts, which has C ED APPLIANCES, BEDDING, SALES & SERVICE N D A I had over 1,000 productions worldwide, with a new U.S. I N L RETAILAsk us INFORMATIONabout fi nancing options. HERE G P national tour starting in 2018. Based on his experiences as a

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staff writer for the long-running hit Love Boat series, Michael S L RETAIL 800-797-3621 INFORMATION - www.lpapplianceme.com HERE A E is writing It’s The Love Boat— a new book on how a TV show L C E PI ®/™ ©2016 KitchenAid. All rights reserved. KEY22011. Form No. KX160329A V Monday - Friday 9am - 5pm | Saturday 9am - 12pm created today’s billion-dollar cruise industry and the historical S ★ SER phenomenon of cruising by ship. His lifelong passion for ®/™ ©2016 KitchenAid. All rights reserved. KEY22011. Form No. KX160329A travel and social history can be seen on his award-winning website: www.cruisingthepast.com.

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