The German pilot schooner Elbe 5, built in 1883, has had a remarkable life. A few years ago, she was in the news after being sunk in a collision with a container ship, ironically in her native river after a significant refit, but it is in the interim period that she had her glory days. After working the difficult waters of the outer Elbe off Hamburg for many years, she retired and ended up with a youth club who renamed her Wandervogel, or Wander Bird.
She was bought in the depths of the depression by Warwick Tompkins and his redoubtable wife, Gwen, to sail under the Stars and Stripes. And sail she certainly did. After crossing the Atlantic seven times, including one passage of 16 days, a record for a sailing vessel under 100ft, the Tompkins shipped a doubty crew which included their small children, and took the schooner from Gloucester, Mass, to San Francisco via Cape Horn.
Tompkins’ book, – the classic definition for ‘doubling the Horn’ from east to west – describes this passage. It is an absolute classic. To complete the 1,000-mile rhumbline trip, they sailed 2,125 brutal miles. Nonetheless, they made the passage to the Golden Gate in a time that many an 1850s clipper ship captain might have envied. We join them in 1936 as they beat ever
