Sail Number:
Wartime Designation: YAG-6
Type: (Schooner)
Ex; Katoura II
LOA: 136’0″ / 41.45m – LOD: – LWL: 100’0″ / 30.48m – Beam: 27’0″ / 8.22m – Draft: 15’0″ / 4.57m – Designer: A. Cary Smith – Original Owner(s): William E. Iselin, New York (NYYC) -;Year Launched: 1911 – Built By: George Lawley & Son Corp., Neponset, Massachusetts – Hull Material: Steel – Displacement: 191 tons – O.N. 208667 – Original Winter Birth: Greenport, New York.
Historical:
Enchantress was designed by Cary Smith & Ferris, and built by Lawley & Son Corp. for Mr. William E. Iselin, who sold his previous yawl “Vigilant,”in order make way for this magnificent vessel. Designed for off-shore cruising and built to Lloyd’s rules 100 A.I. representing the latest advance in yacht construction.
Capt. William C. Ogle, Pasadena
During a 65-day cruise to *the Gulf of California, the 136-foot schooner lost her entire original crew by desertion, went aground at La Paz, ran into heavy fogs and arrived here with a crew composed of Ogle’s wife, relatives and friends. When his original crew took to the hills after carousing at La Paz, Ogle recruited a makeshift crew to sail the Enchantress to Ensenada. “At Ensenada the second crew was sent ashore and I telegraphed my friends to fly south and give us a hand in getting back to American waters,” he said. The schooner left late yesterday for Newport with a crew consisting of Ogle’s wife, Patricia; Thomas Steele, George Minney and his wife, Alice, all of Pasadena; Reggie Quoriz, Alhambra; Ernest Minney, Long Beach, and Lynn Holmington, Walter Grombert and Paul Korlsrick, all of Los Angeles.
War Years
- Chartered by the Navy from Adams, 19 December 1941
- Designation changed from AGb-2 to YAG-6, 31 December 1941
- Placed in service as YAG-6, 08 January 1942
- Operated as station vessel at San Pedro 1942-43
- Laid up and decommissioned by 03 May 1943
- Purchased by Maritime Commission for $35,000, 16 October 1943
- Placed back in service as experimental vessel with Navy Radio and Sound Laboratory, San Diego, 08 August 1944
- Placed out of service, 27 June 1946
- Struck from Naval Register, 19 July 1946
- Sold by Maritime Commission to Morgan Adams, 30 August 1946
- Final Disposition, tranferred to British flag 05 September 1953, final fate unknown
Known Racing History
(1911) Kings Cup Winner
(1923) Kings Cup Winner (The Kings Cup was sailed on the ocean coarse of about thirty-miles off Newport, R.I. August 23rd. The winning time (corrected) was 2:11:54)
(July 17th, 1930) – Transpacific Yacht Race (San Pedro to Honolulu) Sir Thomas Lipton Silver Cup Winner – First yacht to finish and first on corrected time: 12 days, 13 hours, 22 minutes, 52 seconds corrected time.
Provenance. (The Wall of Remembrance – The Owners, Crew & Notable Guest):
Owner: (1911-1924) – William E. Iselin, New York (NYYC)
Captain: Oliver B. Smith.
Owner: (1924) – Robert E. Tod, Banker New York, renamed vessel Katoura II. Founder of Indian Harbor Yacht Club (1889) Atlantic Yacht Club Commodore (1903)
Owner: (1925) – Commodore Morgan Adams, President Morgan Adams, Inc, Los Angeles Yacht Club. (renamed Enchantress)
Captain: Frederick C. Purrucker, CGM, USN (Ret.)
Owner: (1941) – Chartered by US Navy.
Owner: (1943) – Maritime Commission
Owner: (1946) – Morgan Adams, Jr., Beverly Hills, CA. / James H. Adams, homeport Los Angeles.
Owner: (1949) – William C. and Patricia Newland Ogle, Newport Beach, CA.
Owner: (1950) – Oliver W. Blivins / Joseph and Hulda J. Flick, Jr., Inglewood, Ca.
Owner: (1953) – Lazare Baker, Miami, Fl dba Dade Drylock, Corp.
Owner: Roy Edison McTaggert, Grand Cayman Is / Olny Clive Webster, Kingston, Jamaica
Resources:
NavSource Naval History: http://navsource.org/