| IMO | 7738383 |
|---|---|
| Gross tonnage | 420 GT |
| Length | 70.0 m |
| Builder | Burmeister & Wain |
| Hull number | 323 |
| Launched | 1982 |
| Maiden voyage | 1923 |
| Operator | Sail Windjammer [ 12 ] |
| Status | Active |
Overview
Mandalay — more precisely SV Mandalay — is a three-masted schooner with one of the longest and most improbable careers of any vessel in this directory. She was built in 1923 as Hussar (IV), the private yacht of the American financier Edward Francis Hutton; she spent her middle life as Vema, one of the most productive oceanographic research vessels ever sailed, for Columbia University's Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory; and in 1982 she became Mandalay, the best-known ship of Windjammer Barefoot Cruises, later passing to Sail Windjammer, the dataset's current operator.
A warning on identity, because this name is a trap: she is not the 110-foot schooner Mandalay wrecked in Biscayne Bay on New Year's Day 1966 and now a dive site in Biscayne National Park. That was a different, smaller vessel (built 1928 as Hardi Biou, later Valor) that Windjammer's founder also briefly owned. The ship in this guide is the ex-Hussar, ex-Vema hull, IMO 7738383.
Key specifications
The dataset records 420 GT and a length of 70.0 metres. Her own article gives different figures: 585 GRT and 49.9 metres between perpendiculars. The article describes a wrought-iron hull, three decks, auxiliary diesel power of about 900 bhp dating from a 1942 rebuild, a speed of up to 16 knots under full sail, capacity of 72 passengers as Mandalay and a crew of about 28.
Read together, the sources describe a large steel-age sailing yacht of 1920s proportions — small beside any motor cruise ship, and large indeed for a working schooner.
Design and construction
She was built by Burmeister & Wain of Copenhagen, Denmark — the dataset gives hull number 323. As Hussar (IV) she was designed as a grand private yacht of the immediate post-First World War years, and contemporary accounts describe her as the epitome of maritime luxury in her class, with interiors by a New York decorating firm — said to have been the first American firm to decorate a ship built abroad.
Her iron hull is a large part of why she still exists: built to yacht standards in a durable material, she could be rebuilt repeatedly — in 1942 for US Navy use, in 1952 in Nova Scotia, again for Lamont's research work in the 1960s, again by Windjammer in 1981, and again around 2010 — without the structure giving up.
Naming, launch and maiden voyage
She was launched on 2 February 1923 as Hussar and completed the following month. On completion in Denmark, King Christian X of Denmark was invited to inspect her before her maiden crossing to New York, which she is reported to have made in 10 days 21 hours — a transatlantic record for her type at the time.
Career by operator
Her name and operator history, reconstructed from her article and the dataset's operator history, runs:
| Name | Owner / Operator | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Hussar | Edward Francis Hutton (private yacht) | 1923–1934 |
| Vema | Georg Ungar Vettlesen | 1934–1953 |
| Vema | Columbia University — Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory | 1953–1981 |
| Mandalay | Windjammer Barefoot Cruises | 1982–c.2007 |
| Mandalay | Sail Windjammer | from c.2013 |
The Vema years are the scientific core of her story. Under Lamont she logged over a million miles on research expeditions, and data gathered aboard her contributed to confirming continental drift — arguably the most consequential work ever done by a future cruise ship. Laid up in 1971-era decline and sold on in 1981–82, she was restored by Windjammer's Captain Mike Burke on the promise that she would be returned to her former luxury, and entered barefoot cruise service as Mandalay in 1982.
Onboard character
As Mandalay she defined the Windjammer product: a real working sailing ship, not a themed imitation. Around 72 passengers lived at close quarters under sail in the Caribbean, with the rituals of the line — sails raised by hand, informal dress, no formality — as the entire point of the voyage. Contemporary profiles describe mahogany, brass and teak surviving from her yacht origins, a deliberate contrast to the floating-resort cruise industry growing up around her.
Her research decades left a different mark: she was a ship built to go anywhere and stay at sea, which is precisely what made the barefoot product credible.
Major refits and incidents
Her life is a sequence of rebuilds rather than incidents: conversion work in 1942 during US Navy service, a rebuild in 1952 before her Columbia years, further conversion for Lamont in the 1960s, Burke's passenger restoration of 1981, and a further rebuild around 2010 under Angermeyer Cruises of Ecuador, recorded in her article's completion history.
No casualty involving this hull is recorded in the sources consulted. The famous Mandalay wreck of 1966, again, is the other ship.
Sister ships and class
She has no sister ships and belongs to no class. She was a one-off private yacht design of 1923, and both of her later identities — research vessel and cruise schooner — were individual conversions of a unique hull. Her closest relatives are the other historic sailing ships of the Windjammer Barefoot fleet, with which she shared an operator and a style, but not a design.
Fate and where she is now
The dataset records her as active with Sail Windjammer, the successor operation that took her on after Windjammer Barefoot Cruises ceased trading, and cruise profiles describe her sailing Caribbean tall-ship cruises under that banner. Her article's infobox, however, gives her status as "Laid up," and lists a 2013 owner, Mandalay Maritime, SA. What is certain from both is that the hull survives and that her last documented role is as the cruising schooner Mandalay.
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cruise_ships, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SV_Mandalay, http://www.cruiseserver.net/travelpage/ships/wj_mand.asp