Wartime designation: (CGR-2543)
Type: Auxiliary Gaff Schooner (After Cockpit)
LOA: – LOD: 60’4” / 18.39m – LWL: 46’2” / 14.07m – Beam: 14’5″ / 4.39m – Draft: 8’9” / 2.67m – Designer: John G. Alden (No. 359) – Original Owner: Dudley F. Wolfe, Rockland, ME. – Current Owner: – Year Launched: 1928 – Built by: F.F. Pendleton, Wiscasset, ME – Hull material: Wood – Working Sail Area: – Downwind Sail Area: – Displacement: 76,400 lbs / 34,654kg – Ballast: – Status: Lost off Marblehead, Massachusetts (1950s)
Historical:
Mohawk was designed by John G. Alden, and built by F.F. Pendleton, Wiscasset, ME for Dudley F. Wolfe, of Rockland, ME. He soon entered the transatlantic “King and Queen’s Cup Classic,” although no one had previously raced a sixty-foot yacht across the Atlantic ocean. Captaining the vessel he came in second despite competing against yachts of over one hundred feet. He later commissioned a racing cutter Highland Light in which he took part in the 1931 Fastnet Race.
WWII Wartime Service (CGR 2529) – U.S. Coast Guard Coastal Picket Force, 1942 – 1943
Chief Boatswain’s Mate George Keyes, USCGR was the skipper of one of these rugged wooden sailing yachts that went to sea off America’s east coast in 1942 to challenge the vaunted German U-boats. Later in life, he would record an oral history of his time in command of the schooner Mohawk, known officially during the war simply as CGR-2543. Thanks to his son John Keyes, also a Coast Guard veteran, we have an opportunity to live Chief Keyes experiences vicariously through the written word and a wonderful collection of family photos… see more
Provenance (The Wall of Remembrance – The Owners, Crew & Notable Guest):
- Owner/Guardian: (1928-1930) Dudley F. Wolfe, Rockland, ME. – Dudley Francis Cecil Wolfe (February 6, 1896 – July 30, 1939) was an American socialite. As a racing yacht owner and captain, he was the first person to race a sixty-foot yacht across the Atlantic, competing against much larger vessels. He was to inherit a large fortune from his maternal grandfather provided he changed his family name to “Smith”, to which he agreed before reverting again. Wolfe became posthumously famous when he died on the 1939 American Karakoram expedition to K2 in controversial circumstances.
- Owner/Guardian: (1930-1944) Mr. Albert T. Sterns, Barrington, Rhode Island. August 7, 1942 lends vessel to the United States Coast Guard Reserve, Picket Patrol Fleet, until October 1, 1943, when the Coastal Pickets terminated service. November 15, 1944. Mr. Sterns sells vessel to Fred Dion
- Owner/Guardian: (1944) Fred J. Dion, Salem, Massachusetts, converted to a ketch, and was lost during a moonlight sail out of Marblehead, Massachusetts
Resources
Alden Designs
Media.Defense
Wikipedia
Yachting – Volume 77 – Page 190