Schooner Te Vega


Te Vega is a two-masted, gaff-rigged auxiliary schooner. Originally launched as the Etak, she was designed by New York naval architects Cox & Stevens in 1929 for American businessman Walter Graeme Ladd and his wife, Catherine ("Kate") Everit Macy Ladd. Etak was built at the Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft shipyard in Kiel, Germany, and launched in 1930. During World War II she served the US Navy as Juniata . She is among the largest steel-hulled schooners afloat.

History

The Etak has been renamed several times, her subsequent names being Vega, USS Juniata and Te Vega. She is currently Deva.
The ship has changed hands over fifteen times and has undertaken a variety of functions: private yacht, United States Navy patrol vessel during World War II, charter yacht in the West Indies and French Polynesia, research vessel for Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station, and school ship for seaborne prep school the Flint School. She is one of the many tall ships to have appeared in a feature film, the cinerama travelogue South Seas Adventure.
Some of the ship's more colorful owners have been Adolph Dick of the Dick sugar and banking family of New York; Hans-Wilhelm Röhl, co-owner of the Rohl-Connolly Co. and investigated in 1942 for pro-Nazi sympathies; aviation pioneer Thomas F. Hamilton; Crane Co. heir Cornelius Crane; renowned Honolulu-based skipper Omer Darr; Stimson Lumber Company scion Harold Miller; Dutch financier Pieter Schoonheim Samara; and Calisto Tanzi, ex-chairman of the Parmalat group. In January 2006 she was sold to Italian fashion magnate Diego Della Valle.
She was built with a 200-hp American Winton marine diesel engine, which was replaced by a 400-hp English Mirrlees in the 1950s. From the mid-1990s she has had a 700-hp German MTU. Launched with a black hull, she has had white and dark blue hulls as well. She has flown the flags of the United States, France, Liberia, Panama, The Netherlands, and Italy.

World War II service

Army controversy

Allegations were made that Army officers involved in construction of Pacific air ferry routes and bases prior to the war mismanaged the effort and had improper associations with Röhl, particularly with respect to the proposed charter of his yacht Vega as a survey vessel.

Navy

The yacht, then named Vega, was offered by Röhl to the United States Coast Guard and accepted on July 9, 1942. Subsequently, Vega was acquired by the US Navy from H. W. Röhl in 1942, renamed Juniata and designated. The vessel was placed in service on August 11.
Juniata was assigned to the Western Sea Frontier and was based at San Francisco, California. She alternated with other ships on patrol for the great circle route to Hawaii, sailing to and from her station some 500 miles west of Eureka, California. Juniata was placed out of service at Treasure Island, San Francisco, California, on 1 January 1945, returned to the Maritime Commission, and sold to Thomas Hamilton in June 1945.

National Science Foundation ship

The National Science Foundation converted the ship in 1964 for use as a research vessel to be operated by Stanford University. The ship was sold in 1969, replaced by the Proteus.

In the press

  • Untitled Winton Engine Company advertisement with photo.
  • "Diesel Yachts" .
  • "Die Schonerjachten ‚Cressida' und ‚Étak', erbaut auf der Fried. Krupp...".
  • "Modern Sailing Dream Becomes Reality Today".
  • "Cinerama Going to South Pacific".
  • "Looking for Local Color in the South Seas".
  • "New Vacation Ideas".
  • "Antigua Island Invites Tourists".
  • "Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution" .
  • "Schooner Te Vega Berths at Suva".
  • "Te Vega Cruises".
  • "Birds Observed on Various Polynesian Islands aboard the Research Ship Te Vega".
  • "Aspects of the Physiology of Terrestrial Life in Amphibious Fishes".
  • "Nitrogen Uptake by Phytoplankton in the Discontinuity Layer of the Eastern Subtropical Pacific Ocean".
  • "Studies on the fauna associated with the deep scattering layer in the equatorial Indian Ocean, conducted on R/V TE VEGA during October and November 1964" .
  • "Te Vega: Teaching School on the Sea".
  • "The Living Ship Still Lives".
  • "Rolf L. Bolin, Marine Biologist, Stanford Professor, Dies".
  • "»Quite normal pupils«... nur ganz billig ist für sie die schwimmende Schule nicht".
  • "Jovens americanos gostaram de ver brasileiro sempre sorrindo".
  • "Ecology of Conus on Eastern Indian Ocean Fringing Reefs".
  • "Bermuda Gets an Early Taste of Tall Ship Fever".
  • Cover photo.
  • "Marine Algae of the Te Vega 1965 Expedition in the Western Pacific Ocean".
  • "Eine komplette höhere Schule kam unter Schonersegeln nach Lübeck".
  • "Te Vega in Leningrad".
  • "Te Vega in the Mediterranean".
  • "Making Headway Aboard Te Vega".
  • "Tweemastschoener TE VEGA onder Nederlandse vlag".
  • "An East-West Sail For the Environment".
  • "US-Soviet Environmental Project Develops Into Cultural Success".
  • "Tweemastschoener TE VEGA van klassiek jacht tot schoolschip".
  • "The International Program of Research on Latimeria in the 1960s".
  • "Benthic Marine Algae from the Maldives, Indian Ocean, Collected During the R/V Te Vega Expedition".
  • "Refitting del Te Vega".
  • "«Te Vega», una nuova stella per il RINA".
  • "Omer Courtney Darr".
  • "Décès d'Omer Darr, pionnier du tourisme de luxe à la voile".
  • "Exploring Neptune's gardens: From landlubber to reef biologist".
  • "An Affair to Remember".
  • "La scheda: il Te Vega".
  • "Tanzi implica a banqueros, políticos y Policía fiscal".
  • "Yachtverlust".
  • "Della Valle acquista lo yacht di Tanzi".
  • "A Diego Della Valle il 'Te Vega' di Tanzi".
  • "In cantiere a Genova il «Te Vega» e altri 5 scafi d'epoca".
  • "Большая мировая вода".
  • "Ban bèk – Barku di bella".
  • "Capri, aperitivo e tuffo per il Ministro".
  • "Top 200 – Die größten Segelyachten".
  • "Historia de la investigación marina de la Isla del Coco, Costa Rica".
  • "Vigilance at Sea".

In books

Report of the Army Pearl Harbor Board.Give Me a Ship to Sail.Many Lagoons. Inoubliables Lagons Tahiti.Two-Thirds of a Coconut Tree.Te Vega Expeditions, Cruise Narratives.Danske ekspeditioner på verdenshavene.Windjammer Lübeck – Kiel 1972.Windjammer Parade 1972.The Tall Ships: Official OpSail '76 Portfolio.Les Antilles aujourd'hui.Beken of Cowes: A Century of Tall Ships.Les grands voiliers à Bordeaux.Catalogue of the Benthic Marine Algae of the Indian Ocean.In the Spirit of Tradition – Old and New Classic Yachts.The Superyachts – Vol. 11.50 Years of Ocean Discovery. Vele d'Epoca nel mondo.Oceanographic History: The Pacific and Beyond.Pride of the Sea: Courage, Disaster, and a Fight for Survival. Fred Terman at Stanford: Building a Discipline, a University, and Silicon Valley.Chapman's Great Sailing Ships of the World.View From the Top of the Mast.Vele allo specchio.More Curious Than Cautious.Te Vega – The Story of a Schooner and Her People.Perceptions of a Camino.

In paintings

  • Thomas Wells: Vega and Zaca.
  • Thomas Wells: Schooner Vega on a Trans-Pac.
  • Anthony Brandrett: Yachting Off Cowes.

In moving images

The Tahitian.South Seas Adventure.
  • "Soviet-American Sail".