Albatross

Type

Schooner

Period

20th Century

Nation

United States

Overview: Albatross (originally Albatros, also known as Alk) was a two-masted steel-hulled schooner built in 1920 at the Rijkswerf state shipyard in Amsterdam, later famous as an American sail-training vessel that sank in 1961, an event fictionalized in the 1996 film White Squall. Specifications: As built, she measured 93 GRT with a length of 82.8 ft (25.2 m), a beam of 20.8 ft (6.3 m), and a draft of 9.8 ft (3.0 m), carrying a single screw and a crew complement of around 19. In 1954 owner Ernest K. Gann had her re-rigged from schooner to brigantine, a modification some later analysts blamed for raising her center of gravity and reducing her secondary stability. Service History: Launched as the North Sea pilot boat Alk, she served Dutch pilotage duties for nearly two decades before the German government bought her in 1937 and used her as a radio-relay ship for U-boats during the Second World War. Royal Rotterdam Lloyd acquired her in 1949 as a small officer-training vessel, and after Gann's 1954 purchase and brigantine conversion she cruised the Pacific for several years, including a role in the film Twilight for the Gods, before being sold in 1959 to Christopher Sheldon's Ocean Academy Ltd. of Darien, Connecticut, and home-ported at Mystic Seaport as an American sail-training school ship. Notable Facts: The Albatross, homeported at Mystic Seaport, departed Mystic in June 1960 on what would be its final voyage, and at 8:10 a.m. on May 2, 1961, about 180 miles west of Key West on the way to Nassau, a bolt of lightning flashed across the sky and a blast of wind pummeled the ship. Six people, including co-skipper Alice Sheldon, the cook, and four students, died when she heeled over and sank almost instantly; survivors were later rescued from lifeboats by a passing Dutch freighter. The tragedy prompted a U.S. Coast Guard review of stability standards for sailing school vessels, and was recounted in the books "The Last Voyage of the Albatross" and "White Squall: The Last Voyage of Albatross," as well as the Ridley Scott film.