Sail Number:
Type: Center Board (Schooner) After Cockpit
LOA: – LOD: 84’8″ / 25.81m – LWL: 64’0″ / 19.51m – Beam: 21’0” / 6.40m – Draft: 6’0” / 1.83m – Displacement: 140,000 / 63,503 – Design Number: 408 – Hull Number: 31 – Hull material: Wood construction – Designer: John G. Alden – Built by: Goudy & Stevens, East Boothbay, ME – Year Built: 1929 – Former name(s): SARTARTIA II – Current Name: – Original Owner: Benjamin Clayton – Status: Galveston, Tx. 1970s sank in her slip
Historical:
The South Wind, one of the last great two-masted schooners to grace the seven seas with her cloud of sail.
Commissioned in 1929 at Boothbay, Maine by Houston’s Benjamin Clayton, the South Wind sailed into one of America’s most romantic eras.
Her masters read like a who’s who in Hollywood. Included in her past masters are such greats as Charles “Buck” Jones, Joseph Maniewicz, George Brent, Jack Warner, and Jackie Coogan. While Warner owned her, the flamboyant Errol Flynn escaped upon her decks. Murry Samuals, who was her master during the early fifties drank many a rum and coke with Ernest Hemingway anchored in Havana Harbor.
Originally designed by John Alden of Boston, the South Wind was commissioned Sartartia by Benjamin Clayton. Sartartia was the name of one of the Clayton’s family plantations. Two weeks after she was launched, Clayton and his new bride took their honeymoon cruise aboard her to the Bahamas. Clayton sailed her two years and on February 7, 1931, the Sartartia was sold to Harry J. Bauer of Los Angeles who renamed her the South Wind, thus beginning her career as “Yacht of the Stars.”
In 1962, D.F.W. Downey, a multi-millionaire Houston builder. Bought her for the price of $400,000.00. Downey refitted her in Boston and added the small deck cabin. She originally was a flush-decked schooner. Downey made her ready for chartering business in the windward and Leeward Islands, sailing the waters of the Carribean.
In September of 1971, “Doc” Rail of Nassau Bay, Texas, purchased the South Wind. She was berthed at Morgans Point for a number of years after Downey’s death and was badly in need of repair.
Rail was refitting her in Galveston at the Galveston Yacht Basin, when a freak storm blew out of the Northeast on November 23 with winds up to 30 knots. The South Wind beat herself to death and sank in 35’ of water. She had taken a 4’ x 4’ hole in her starboard side at the beam. But damage was more extensive than that; her keel had also pulled away from the bottom. The South wind seemed destined for the salvage heap… The South Wind, “Yacht of the Stars.”
Under George Brent’s Stewardship
“Operation Miserable”
1946 San Pedro-Honolulu Race – “Eighteen minutes into the race, Brent was at the helm of South Wind when it passed buoy 2-A the last yacht in the fleet of competitors.” Aside from being last to start….A lovely sight except for one thing George’s boat was going in the wrong direction.
Twenty-five-days of sailing lay ahead before reaching Diamond Head.
Tom Fleming, South wind’s bullheaded skipper, had insisted that the starting line was outside the breakwater. He was wrong, no one aboard heard the starting gun. The tension on deck was becoming impossible noted crew member Carl Cook. “Brent was speechless and went under deck. Cook, a Pacific veteran, wrote that skipper Fleming was a hopeless, nasty sourpuss. and absolutely no sailor.”
By the close of the day they had made no headway and ended up East of San Clemente…in calm waters They realized they had lost the race!
By the fifth day out, Cook wrote, “Brent remarked, “Since this appears to be a Mailbu Charter Cruise, I might as well get a tan.” Tension were released when someone placed an air bladder under Cook’s dining room cushion. “It sounded horrible, he admitted. “We had beans the day before. Crew member Pat Watson almost died laughing….
Provenance (The Wall of Remembrance – The Owners, Crew & Notable Guest):
Owner: (1929-1931) – Benjamin Clayton, Houston Texas cotton broker
Owner: (1931) – Harry J. Bauer, Los Angeles Ca – renamed her the Southwind
Owner: (1933,1934) – Cyril Tobin, Commodore St. Francis Yacht Club
Owner: (1936) – Charles “Buck” Jones, Van Nuys, screen actor, horseman, yachtsman, member and Vice-Commodore of the Pacific Writers Yacht Club
Captain: Alexander L. Van Valin
Owner: (1939) – Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Pacific Palisades. Film director, screenwriter, and producer.
Owner: (1940) – Joe E. Brown, actor and comedian
Owner: (1941) – George Brent, stage, film, and television actor.
Owner: (1941) – Jack Warner, producer
Actor: Errol Flynn
Owner: (1946, 1947) – George Brent, repurchased vessel
Captain: Tom Fleming
Crew: (Transpacific Race Crew) Pat Watson, Carl Cook…
Guest: Ernest Hemingway
Owner: (1962-1971) – Doyle Downey, Houston, Tx. – Homeport: Galveston, Tx (chartered for $2,975)
Owner: (1971) – “Doc” Rail, Nassau Bay, Texas
Sources
George Brent: Ireland’s Gift to Hollywood and Its Leading Ladies
By Scott O’Brien
The Yachting News Magazine
Weems Collections – Maps, Ships and Architecture
Coronado Citizen
Aldens Designs
Photo acknowledgement(s): (in order of appearance)
South Wind 1964 English Harbour Antigua – H. Danvers
George Brent
Buck Jones
Buck Jones
