| Irving Johnson, skipper of the brigantine "Yankee" from 1933 to 1958 died
of Parkinson's disease yesterday. I can remember the excitement when I
was a kid in Rockport, Mass. waking up on a Summer's morn and seeing
the masts of "Yankee" from my bedroom window. Barefoot before breakfast
I would make my way over to Granite Wharf and hang around watching and
dreaming about someday sailing away on this great ship. The "Yankee"
went down somewhere off Australia/New Zealand sometime in the 60s. Now
her skipper has followed.
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| The "Yankee" you're probably referring to is on the reef near the
harbor at Rorotonga - a few days sail west of Tahiti and Bora Bora.
When I climbed around on her in 1976, there wasn't much left of her but
a rusting hulk. She was returning from a trip Down Under with another
Captain (for another owner too, I believe) when she was caught in a
blow, couldn't weigh anchor due to low batteries with one set ashore
being charged, and unable to do anything but drag onto the reef of the
lee shore.
I was there on the "Romance" skippered by Arthur Kimberley and his wife
Gloria who met and were married on the "Yankee" by Irving Johnson. This
was the second "Yankee". The first was a schooner that made the first
3-4 circumnavigations; this one was a Brigantine that made the next 2-3
trips. The third was a ketch that he sailed through Europe in the late
50's or early 60's. They published a book after nearly every trip.
It was these stories that greatly influenced me to do the same thing -
on "Romance" in the early-mid 70's during my first years at DEC (before
a wife, house, kids, dogs, station wagons, etc...)
Fair winds, Irving...
Peter Damon
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