A Long and Wandering History Preserved

A boat’s pedigree typically refers to the yard where it was built and the craftsman and artisans who contributed. There may also be predecessors: namesake vessels who came before. The Wanderbird has a rich lineage in the namesake of the Wandervogel, translated to Wanderbird and also known as No. 5 Elbe.

The No. 5 Elbe was built by Gustav Junge in 1883. It served for 41 years as a pilot schooner before it was sold in the 1920s to American journalist Warwick Tompkins. Tompkins made several transatlantic passages with the renamed Wander Bird before he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. In the 1930s, the Tompkins family sailed the Wander Bird around Cape Horn — going the “wrong way” from east to west.  He later chartered the boat for trips to the South Sea islands. 

Pilot Schooner No. 5, Old Salt Blog

The schooner was struck by a freighter and sank in Hamburg and has since be righted and shipped to Denmark for repair.

George Baker spent more than 5 years planning and building the Trawler Wanderbird. He had a unique vision of an ultra-efficient, 65 foot boat, able to travel the world with the assistance of headsails. As we’ve learned about the history, we have come across others whose stories are intertwined.

Once, while anchored in the Exuma islands, a small craft approached and a man named Stephen announced he had worked on the boat when it was built. Imagine that, thousands of miles from where it was constructed, off a remote island! A week later we helped the Navyman-turned-captain-turned-biologist catch and tag sea turtles for research.

Tagging turtles in the Exumas with the Bahamas Sea Turtle Network

I recently had an email exchange with Brooks Townes in Port Townsend who worked on an earlier refit of the Elbe. He tells me that there seems to be a robust demand for the necessary type of Oak used in her hull.

Had lunch while back with a group of international wooden vessel restorers who expressed concern for the yard in Denmark’s ability to locate the proper oak for her repairs as the same hard European oak is being gobbled by the restoration of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Personally I’m not sure how pure they need to be in using the same oak. There’s plenty of suitable purple heart about if they can veer a bit. (The yard, we’re told, used up its considerable hoard of the right oak in the schooner’s earlier restoration.) 

From Brooks’ correspondence

Brooks sent along a photo of this print he recovered from the bilge of the Elbe.

Watercolor by Bill Gilkerson of Elbe No. 5 and a sistership – at work off the Elbe, c/o Brooks Townes

While reading the comments section on the an article about the sinking of Elbe No 5, I came across a post.

I live next door to the house that Hal Sommer lived in before his death. It’s a long story but I have the original bronze metal lettering WANDER _ _ RD. I am not sure what to do with them other than donate them to the Sausalito Historical Society. Unless someone else has a better idea.

Steve Fabes, Commented on the Sinking of Wander Bird article

After some email exchange Steve promptly shipped the letters he was able to recover. Presumably, these bronze letters adorned the stern of the wooden schooner as she sailed around Cape Horn in 1936 and criss-crossed the seas in many voyages. More recent photos from the 50’s show different lettering so I suspect these were removed in the bay area prior to Hayden Sterling’s ownership. It was at that time when the actor announced to his makeshift crew that they were bound for Tahiti, rather than Santa Barbara as planned. I suppose it’s possible the letters were mounted elsewhere. Perhaps someone will come forward with additional information!

Thankfully Steve had the foresight to collect and preserve them as they’ll make quite the historical centerpiece – ideally if we find a fine arts painter who could create a piece for the main saloon, we thought we could incorporate the letters into a custom frame.

Some of the Bronze lettering from the original Wanderbird

Wanderbird Schooner looks to be Restored Again

A recent inquiry about the fate of Elbe No 5, the original Schooner Wanderbird, or Wandervogel as it was originally in German, left me searching for information, after she sank in June of 2019. This video from October of that year, shows that she’s been pulled up and sent to a shipyard in Hvide Sande, Denmark. As I read, no shipyard in Germany has the ability to repair a wooden vessel of her size so she was shipped up and appears to be floating on her own. It looks as though she’ll sail again thanks to Hamburg Maritime.

We’re happy to see that after 137 years of sailing, she’ll continue to sail. We’ve been searching for an artist to paint the original schooner rounding Cape Horn, for our salon. If anyone knows a skilled nautical artist, please pass long the info.

Sinking of the Wander Bird

No, not us, but our namesake, the beautiful sailing schooner Wanderbird, also known as Elbe No 5, was struck by the 465-ft container carrier Astrosprinter on the Elbe river near Hamburg in Germany last June in 2019.

We often check in on the old wooden boat, to see if she’s had any work or a change of ownership. Hamburg Maritime Foundation, the most recent owners, had recently completed a $1.7million refit at a Danish yard and she was enjoying work as a tour boat when the unfortunate incident occurred.

We had always dreamt of sailing our little sister to meet the noble schooner and while she rests just underwater, chances grow slim as she’s consigned to the briney depths.

Article on Latitude 38
Wander Bird’s last moments afloat

As for us, we continue to make preparations during quarantine. After more than two months, the boat is back in the water while we wrap up the repairs and improvements.

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Provisioning and Repairs

Wanderbird was launched in 2004 and was built to travel the world. For some time she sat dormant, mired in various legal issues and controversy. Ships, especially those with the customization like she has, don’t like to sit idle.

The previous captain had kept her well, though their missions was more sedate than ideal. When we moved her south it was a test of her resolve in some way. The boat began to show signs of her age, first with an autopilot failure, a string of other minor issues and then a burst ice maker hose that drained 1,700 gallons of water into the river.

Thankfully, her new Captain is a natural engineer, perhaps to his chagrin. As we provision and prepare to head to the Bahamas on Friday he’s replaced the galley faucet with an updated, more suitable Koehler unit, re-engineered the ice maker cabinet for better air flow, remounted the other ice maker and many other small projects.

The propane tanks required refilling, having not been touched in five years, but we expect to use more volume than the previous owners who only employed the French ring on the Wolf range once, to warm some plates. Having tested the grill with friends on Sunday and confirmed that our documentation is sufficiently in order, we’ll be off on Friday for our first time in the Bahamas.