Destructive Valuing
If you are looking for someone willing to spend a few million dollars restoring a very beautiful 1910 Herreschoff schooner that’s lying on the seabed in Osaka, Japan, would you really ask them for A$161,523 for the privilege of lifting her off the ocean floor? Over the years I have witnessed too many occasions where a vendor’s fanciful assumptions of what a boat is worth, have contributed significantly to the demise of an important vessel. Perhaps this example takes the cake!
Having said that its a great story and I’d love to be proved wrong by a generous White Knight (or Samuri?) with bottomless pockets riding into the picture.
VAGRANT before the sinking
VAGRANT was a graduation present from the Vanderbilt family to Harold, of Americas Cup fame, heir to the uncounted fortune of his great grandfather Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt. The busy Herreshoff yards at Bristol, Rhode Island USA, received the purchase order to begin work on March 23rd, 1910. Sixty days later at a cost of $26,800US the ocean racer was commissioned and christened VAGRANT by Harold who immediately raced her to first place in the 1910 Bermuda Race.
Elegant and slim with 92ft masts of Douglas fir, she boasted two master staterooms with bathrooms, separate crew quarters, stained glass in the saloon and exotic wood paneling throughout, all typical of Herreshoff's attention to the most minute details, exemplifying his da Vincian combination of practical expertise and lyric genius. In 1912, Harold sold her to Hendon Chubb and commissioned Herreshoff to build him an even larger yacht, which he also christened VAGRANT. Chubb renamed the original schooner QUEEN MAB, the name she was to carry for almost three-quarters of a century. She held the record for twelve consecutive Transpacific Yacht Races.
QUEEN MAB was owned by various members of the East Coast yachting establishment, notably Wall Street broker William A.W. Stewart who campaigned her from 1926 to 1939. She came to the West Coast of America around 1948. From 1953-1971 Larry Pringle and Phyllis Brunson sailed her out of Catalina, and took her on nine consecutive Trans Pacific races. QUEEN MAB raced Class A against the biggest and best such as the GOOD WILL (161 ft, 50 crew), MORNING STAR, BARUNA, ONDINE, TICONDEROGA, BLACKFIN, and WINDWARD PASSAGE. She never finished below 12th.
Serviced by the Herreshoff yard during most of her East Coast life, QUEEN MAB was the first American yacht to be rigged with sail track and slides on the mast. Her mainmast was changed from Gaff to Marconi in 1920 by Nat Ayer, and the foremast was converted in 1952. VAGRANT is now re-rigged to her original sail plan as a Gaff Schooner.
In May of 1983 she turned up in Antigua in poor condition. She traded hands once again, this time to Hans Lammers, a 33-year-old Dutchman with an eye for classic beauty. Lammers has been chartering in the West Indies since he was 21, buying old but classic yachts, and patching them up as best he could. He decided to change her name back to the original VAGRANT. For about a year or so, Lammers chartered the semi restored VAGRANT wherever and whenever he could. In late 1984 he decided to offer her for sale. The months passed and to most people it seemed that VAGRANT’s sailing days were finally over; until her discovery and subsequent rescue by Peter de Savary. Her rescue from obscurity 75 years after Nathaniel Herreshoff, had been commissioned to create her, will go down as yachting history. Under his and Jim Alabaster’s personal direction, VAGRANT was completely restored over a period of nearly three years at a cost of several million dollars. The new rig was built by Spencers in the Isle of Wight and no expense was spared to ensure that VAGRANT was fitted out with state of the art technology. She then crossed the Atlantic twice and was cruising the Med, UK and Bahamas with her 5 man crew. There are claims that VAGRANT was the most perfectly restored classical yacht in the world in the 80’s.
She was put up for sale in 1990 in Antibes and then moved to Falmouth in the UK. In March 1992 Peter de Savary sold her to the Osaka Yacht Club and one of the conditions was that she be deliver under sail.
She has been in Japan ever since, but recently a typhoon took her to the bottom at her berth. So now she needs rescuing which will include raising her, shipping her to suitable place and fully rebuilding . This will cost many millions of dollars. So let’s face it. At this stage she is, at best… worthless.
