Historical:

INVADER was designed by Albert Stanton Chesebrough, the grandson of Nathanael Herreshoff and Edward Burgess, who were considered to be the best designers of their era. The schooner was launched on 11 July 1905 and built by the famous George Lawely & Son – South Boston shipyards – and registered in New York.

Lawely & Son were renowned for their construction techniques and the material they used. The shipyard produced two yachts designed by E. Burgess, the PURITAN (1895) and the MAYFLOWER (1896), which both went on to challenge and win the America’s Cup

The structure and planking of Invader were in nickel steel, the ballast was made of lead and the bridge in teak. The ship had a mobile keel which brought her draught to 7.610 metres, a feature which very few designers dared to adopt in ships of this size, given the difficulty in maintaining the axis as well as the ease of pivoting of the vessel on her beam-ends. The harmony of the lines of the yacht, which ran from prow to stern, uninterrupted by motor axes or propellers must have been a wonderful sight to see on the day of her launch. The ship’s hull had been created to move through the water without risk of anything harming her, powered by more than 1067 m2 of sail. The was launched and remained in this condition until 1914.

INVADER had been commissioned by Mr. ROY A. RAINER of Cleveland, a coal magnate (more than a quintal of coal was found during the rebuilding of the yacht – which seem to symbolize the source for the birth of INVADER). Mr. ROY was keen for INVADER to take part in the 1906 Spring Cup regattas, but the boat needed more preparation time and the crew (of 28 to 35 members) needed to train more. And without these things, there would be no hope of competing against the sacred monsters of the America’s Cup who that year frequented the waters around New York and Newport. The adversaries were the Vanderbilts, Morgans, Astors and Goulds, not to mention the ones from the Old Continent like Kaiser Wilhelm II or Sir Thomas Lipton, the richest men in the world who owned the fastest yachts in the world.

Under Donald Musgrave Lee’s Ownership

Don Lee was a pioneer in S. California broadcasting. He owned and operated the first radio station, KHJ-AM (1050) in Los Angeles. He was also the west coast distributor for Cadillac and LaSalle cars. The transmitting tower for KHJ stood atop his dealership at the corner of Seventh and Bixel in downtown Los Angeles.

The Don Lee Broadcasting Network was formed by including his KFRC-AM in San Francisco with KHJ and other stations along the Pacific Coast (in Washington, KOL in Seattle and KVI, then in Tacoma). When the Columbia Broadcasting System extended their lines west, Lee took CBS President William Paley for a sail aboard Invader to measure the cut of the easterner’s jib while discussing a merger. Thinking it a day sail, Paley lost patience on the third day when no talk of combining networks had begun. Lee returned to port, signed Paley’s contract with little haggling, and the largest broadcasting network in the country was created.

When California Yacht Club revived the Transpac race in 1926, Invader won the event with Pirate designer Ted Geary aboard as sailing master. Earlier the same year, Lee had set a record for sailing from Catalina to L. A. harbor in 1hr. 50 minutes.

In 1931, Don Lee obtained the first television license in California for experimental TV station W6XAO (later KTSL for Thomas S. Lee). With the help of the young engineer Harry Lubke, they published plans for building receiver sets at home and as many as a hundred “lookers” built them as commercial sets were still unavailable.

To reach a larger audience, Lee ultimately relocated his transmitter to a mountain top just east of Griffith Park. Still known as Mt. Lee it is easily spotted just above the famous “HOLLYWOOD” sign.

Landmark events attributed to W6XAO are the first live talent broadcasts on the coast in 1932, the first dramatic TV serial “Vine Street” and the first live broadcast of a natural disaster when aerial images of the damage from the 1933 Long Beach earthquake were aired to viewers.

Don Lee died suddenly on August 30, 1934 at the age of 53 leaving son Tommy as sole heir…Don Lee Broadcaster

Under Joseph Michael Schenck Stewardship

In the early 1920s he founded Loew’s exhibition company together with Marcus Loew. Schenck married the film star Norma Talmadge in 1916, the year before he left Loew’s to become an independent producer. Among the stars for whom Schenck produced were his wife, her sister Constance Talmadge, the comedian Fatty Arbuckle, and Buster Keaton, who was married to the third Talmadge sister, Natalie. It was the freedom provided by his contract with Schenck that enabled Keaton to produce his finest work between 1920 and 1928.

In 1924 Schenck was offered the position of chairman of the board of United Artists, a company five years old and in financial difficulty. Schenck attracted much new talent, including Gloria Swanson, in addition to his own stars Buster Keaton and William S. Hart. Within four years United Artists had become profitable. Following the death of its president, Hiram Abrams, Schenck assumed his position. Other important names who became associated with him during his  tenure were Samuel Goldwyn, Walt Disney, and Alexander Korda.

n 1933 he partnered with Darryl F. Zanuck to create Twentieth Century Pictures, which merged with Fox Film Corporation in 1935. As chairman of the new 20th Century Fox, he was one of the most powerful and influential people in the film business.

Pioneer executive Joseph Schenck played a key role in the development of the United States film industry. Schenck was one of the founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, in 1952 he was given a special Academy Award in recognition of his very significant contribution to the development of the film industry. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6757 Hollywood Blvd.

Douglass Fairbanks Charter

Douglas Fairbanks by Jeffrey Vance, Tony Maietta

Douglass Fairbanks chartered Joseph M. Schenek’s schooner Invader, in order to film a modern adaption of Daniel Defoes novel “The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. Insulated by his most faithful cronies, including his new leading lady, the Spanish actress Maria Alba, with whom he was discreetly having an extramarital affair. The affable A. Edward Sutherland, who had previously worked with Chaplin and W.C. Fields, and Max Dupont were also brought aboard, as director and cinematogpher respectively. The film would be called “Mr. Robinson Crusoe,” due to the remoteness of the location, either by accident or design Fairbanks was back into “Silent Films.”

With over 70% of “Mr. Robinson Crusoe” finished the crew returned to Hollywood to complete the film where the arduous task of postproduction dubbing was undertaken. The world premiere of “Mr. Robinson Crusoe” was held on September 21, 1932 at the Rivoli Theatre in New York City to favorable reviews, except Variety declaring the film “one of Douglas Fairbanks minor efforts.”

While sailing in the Pacific on the schooner Invader, Steve Drexel (Douglas Fairbanks Sr.), a wealthy yachtsman, bets his friends that he can swim ashore a deserted island with nothing but a toothbrush and, after one year, can be found by them to be living a comfortable lifestyle. After the bet is accepted, Drexel and his dog arrive on a South Seas island and set up an amazing home, through the use of some incredible hand-made devices and the training of some local animals. Meanwhile, on a nearby island, a young maiden flees her arranged wedding. She canoes to Steve’s island for safety, whereupon she is dubbed “Saturday”. Soon they are attacked by vengeful tribesmen from the neighboring island. Will Steve and Saturday survive?

Mr. Robinson Crusoe is a 1932 Pre-Code American film. It is one of the few “talkie” films starring Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., in his penultimate film role; Fairbanks also produced the film and provided the story. The film was directed by A. Edward Sutherland, a veteran silent film director, for Fairbanks’s Elton Productions, and released by United Artists. Steve Drexel (played by Fairbanks) shows a fiery optimism and can-do spirit that matches the Fairbanks screen persona that appears in his most popular films.

The South Seas comedy adventure featured location filming on Tahiti[1] with working titles being Tropical Knight, A Modern Robinson Crusoe and Robinson Crusoe of the South Seas.

Known Racing History

1926 – Don Lee, San Pedro, California to Honolulu Race Winner (12 days, 2 hours, 48 minutes)
1926 – Don Lee, Honolulu to San Francisco, record run (13 days, 5 hours, 45 minutes)
1927 – Don Lee, Catalina to Los Angeles Harbor – Record run (1 hour, 50 minutes)

Voyage of the Invader – by Louise Omwake Eckerson

It was the spring of 1941, WWII was only something that concerned Europe and Asia. And I? I was a psychology teacher in a small New Jersey College. I had spent five summers traveling on twelve-passenger freighters and had become addicted to unexpected adventure and was looking for further adventures. Then I found the Student International Travel Association (SITA).

Reading the SITA promises grabbed my attention, held me captive, and sold me on a July voyage “under sail to Hawaii.” For $450—covering all expenses including $50 for a single cabin—I would steer the schooner, work in the galley, visit four Hawaiian Islands, and savor the Pacific Ocean and Polynesian culture under sun, moon, and stars. The next day I mailed my check for $25 to reserve Cabin 1 for the July 10 sailing from California. The schooner would be my home for two months.

For the next three months I dreamed of sailing ships. I was to have an adventure to top all adventures. A schooner would be more beautiful and more exotic than a freighter. Finally in July, six of us, all strangers, met in New York on the Pacemaker and started our trek by rail across the continent. We arrived at the harbor in Newport Beach, California, ready to embark the next day. We met Jack, the owner, and the other 13 crewmen and saw our schooner, the Invader.

There she was, 136 feet of gleaming white schooner with new sails furled over her booms. Although her topmasts had been removed when her racing days ended at middle age, the Invader still retained the freshness of youth. Yet, even without her wings spread, the Invader was a streamlined beauty, a promise of adventurous days afloat, the excitement of wind and wave alternating with lazy relaxation.

Jack told us the Invader had a distinguished pedigree. Built in 1905, she was purchased in her prime by John Barrymore and subsequently owned by Hollywood’s Joseph Schenk. The Invader became a movie star when Douglas Fairbanks, in the role of Robinson Crusoe, dived off her stern and swam to one of the Hawaiian Islands. She had moved among the elite. However, my dreams aboard ship didn’t reveal how many illustrious persons had occupied my cabin. No glamorous ghosts returned.

Read more…

Provenance (The Wall of Remembrance – The Owners, Crew & Notable Guest of Invader)

• Owner: (1905-1914) – Roy A. Rainey, Larchmont Y.C. (heir to the W.J.Rainey Coke Co. empire)
• Owner: (1914-1915) – John Borden (brought Invader to the “Great Lakes”)
• Owner: (1915-1919) – Henry D. Whiton, N.Y.Y.C., Henry D. Whiton served as president of the Union Sulphur Company from 1905-1914. Although his hiring likely resulted from his marriage to (founder) Herman Frasch’s daughter Frieda Frasch, prior to their marriage Whiton had distinguished himself as an executive with Charles F. Brush’s Brush Electric Company. Whiton had worked at the Brush Electric Co. for twelve years, with much of his time spent in Italy working on construction of the company’s electric plants.
  Whiton was a supporter of the New York Zoological Society, now called the Wildlife Conservation Society, he became a member of its Executive Committee in 1924 and Vice President in 1925
• Owner: (1919-1921) – Commodore John Barneson was one of the most important figures in commerce and development on the Pacific Coast of California. He was responsible for the first oil pipeline in the State of California and was the Founder of General Petroleum which he later sold to Standard Oil of New York. Captain Barneson was a Director and Vice President of Standard Oil after the merger. Captain Barneson was also a pioneer in the use of oil as a fuel for ocean steamers, he was one of the most popular social and business figures in the early 1900s and helped transform the economy of California. San Francisco Yacht Club & St. Francis Yacht Club, California Club of Los Angeles, Seattle Yacht Club Member, and Northwest International Yachting Association Commodore 1893 (20,060 mile ocean voyage) In his memoirs Herbert Hoover wrote: The matter was not itself so important but it brought me the acquaintance of Captain John Barneson, the president of General Petroleum. Captain John was one of the choice souls in American life. Honest, courageous, frank, generous and loyal, and with a high quality of humor, he had started before the mast; risen to command a naval supply ship in the Spanish–American War; gone into the shipping business for himself; thence into oil fuel business; from there finally into oil production, where he built up the General Petroleum Company to a great industry.” (The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover, pg 111)
• Owner: (1921-1924) – John Percival Jefferson, Montecito
• Owner: (1924-1929) – Don Lee, San Francisco Yacht Club – Renamed vessel Nancy Lee
• Owner: (1929-1935) – American Film Studio Executive. Joseph M. Schenck
• Owner: (1935-1941) – Harry H. Hunnewell, Boston, Massachusetts. The Capital Journal 04 Sep 1941, Adrift helplessly off the Golden Gate, and running short of food and water supplies, the yacht Invader raised distress signals last night and was towed into port by a coast guard cutter. The crew of 25 college students, including eight women, said they had been on emergency rationd for five days, after being becalmed twice since leaving Honolulu 22 days ago. Jack Dengler of New York City, head of the group, said the 112-foot, two-masted schooner, owned by Harry H. Hunnewell of Los Angeles, ran out of fuel about 1000 miles west of Honolulu, and was becalmed for four days. After picking up a strong breeze, the Invader came to within five miles of the Golden Gate, where it was becalmed again Tuesday night. Dengler said the ship’s supply of butane cooking gas gave out about 12 days out of Honolulu, and the water and food ran low about 17 days out, making strict rationing necessary. The students, mostly from Los Angeles, were all members of the Students International Travel association, and shared expenses and work. There were only two professional seamen aboard.
• Owner: Glen Beymer
• Owner: (1941-1945) – Carl Shilling
• Owner: (1945-) – Sita Tours Inc
• Owner: Sailor’s Union Pacific (S.U.P.) converted into a training ship
• Owner: Paul Noyes
• Owner: Joseph Rosenberg
• Owner: Paul Steffen
• Owner: (1948-1949) – Warren C. Holst (15 January
• Owner: (1949-1950) – George Koykendahl
• Owner: (1950-1961) – Roger J. Henderson
• Owner: (1961-) – R. L. Wood
• Owner: (1976) – Robert J. Halcro (Windjammer Cruises)
• Owner: Caribbean Blue Sea Inc
• Capt: John Barneson 1920 – ?
• Captain: L.A. Davidson
• Capt: John Haga 1929 – 1935
• Capt: Ted Geary
• Capt: Giuliano Mussone
• Actor: Douglas Fairbanks, actor, screenwriter, director, and producer.
• Film Producer: Irving Thalberg
• Director: E. Sutherland
• Writer: Tom Gerahty
• Actor: Charles Chaplin – founded United Artists and met Paulette Goddard, his future wife onboard. All at Sea (1933) but not released until 2010. Silent home movie of Charles Chaplin, Alistair Cooke, Paulette Goddard sailing around Catalina.
• Actor: Franklyn Ardell
• Actor: Earle Browne
• Actor: Chuck Lewis
• Actor: John Barrymore
• Actor: A. Edward Sutherland
• Actor: Buster Keaton
• Actor: Clark Gable
• Singer/Actor: Ben Lyon
• Talent Agent: Phil Berg
• Actress: Peggy Hopkins Joyce – The Portuguese Diamond
• Actress: Pola Negri
• Actress: Maria Alba
• Actress: Paulette Goddard
• Actress/Model: Leila Hyams
• Actress: Greta Garbo
• Actress: Gloria Swanson
• Actress: Mary Pickford
• Actress: Norma Shearer
• Actress, Singer, Dancer, Writer and Producer: Bebe Daniels
• First Mate: Robert J Decker 1933-1935
• Architect: A.S. Chesebrough
• Sailing Master: Ted Geary, (1926 Honolulu Race) Most trilling sail in 30 years occurred on the first night of the race in a gale – 15 knots for seven hours.
• Race Crew: Owen Churchill, (1926 Honolulu Race) “We really went first class: one chef, two assistant cooks, and one steward. Not one drink was taken [while] racing over. We raced! Then we raced back to San Francisco and beat the hell out of MARINER and POINSETTIA. We drank going home!”
• Race Crew: Pierpont Davis, (1926 Honolulu Race)
• Race Crew: Swift Baker (a SIR TOM crew member), (1926 Honolulu Race)
• Race Crew: Lloyd Johnson
• Race Crew: Ray Cook, (1926 Honolulu Race)
• Crew: Major J.C.Waller
• Crew: Lloyd Johnson
• Crew: Pierpond Davis
• Crew: Ray Cooke
• Dr. C.B. Combille
• Crew: Robert Decker
• Passager/Crew: Louise Omwake Eckerson
• Engineer: O. Schonsted

Comments

Loyd Mclaughlin – September 4, 2019

i worked on the invader in the late 1970’s when she worked as a cruze boat for windjammer in hawaii
there are more pictures on the facebook windjammer hawaii page of her.

Freedom Mevana- January 2, 2021

Hey there ,
How you doing . Happy new year there mate. My name is Freedom . I’ve been working on Invader for almost 2 years . We’ve managed to do a new refit in 2018/2019 and got her back to sailing after many years of being out . We’ve been fortunate enough to work with many salty old dogs who knew a little bit of her previous older crew years back . I wanted to find out whether you had any photos or clips to see how the older generation used to sail her and rig her up as to how we’ve set her after using the old sail plans and setups there were aboard.

Any links of previous crew riggers photos around 80/90’s who would’ve potentially sailed raced or crewed her before she went into the major restoration in Italy 2000-2003 would be also deeply appreciated any information or input to her rig setup and sailing will be deeply again much appreciated.
Deeply appreciate your time ,

Yours sincerely

Freedom

Lewis Chesebrough – January 17, 2021

Hello Freedom,

I am wondering if you’d be willing to talk to give me more information about this boat’s current status, ownership group, and opportunities for chartering. My great grandfather Albert Stanton Chesebrough designed this boat and I am deeply interested in family research, and have only started generating enough income to make chartering it somewhat of a reality if I can convince some cousins to go in with me. Perhaps there is someone involved in the management who would be willing to provide a family discount if we promise to bring family stories. Some of us are very good sailors and can assist as crew as well.
Best,
Lewis
My email is:
Lfchesebrough (at) gmail dot com – wrote it this way to avoid bot spam

Lewis Chesebrough – January 17, 2021

my other comment was meant to be a reply, hope you see this.

Bill Chasser – January 14, 2022

As a young lad in the late 1960’s I had the privilege of being onboard SV Invader on many occasions in the San Francisco Bay Area. My grandfather, Jack Chasser, knew Bob Wood very well. I’m thinking both were members of the Sacramento Yacht Club but I can’t be sure how they knew one another. Both, Jack and my dad William Chasser spent time working on the boat’s restoration and made several cruises down to Mexico and other destinations. I remember Bob Wood’s German Shepherd as he would follow me around the deck making sure I didn’t fall overboard.

Both my grandfather and my dad would tell stories about Bob and their cruises together. I have daily audio tape recordings of the Mexico cruise that I recently uncovered. I also have a oil painting that my grandfather painted of Invader in full sail with her rigging from that time period hanging in my home.

I was aware of her move to San Diego. I think a church organization owned her then. Our family happened to see her there while on vacation. And we saw her tied up again in Hawaii when we went to see Jack who was living on the islands during retirement. I then had lost track of her movements and ownership.

One night, several years ago, I was watching a very old movie that was set in the South Pacific and realized I was looking at SV Invader once again. I was spellbound looking over her details. I don’t know the name of the movie but would like to find it again. With my memory jarred I began an internet search for SV Invader. I was filled with tears when I rediscovered her on a website, having been completely refitted along with a brief history and being offered for sale. She’s absolutely beautiful. I wish I could be able to walk her decks and to simply touch her. I have fond memories of her if only from the perspective of a child.