Last April we posted about Australian mining billionaire Clive Palmer’s plans to build a 21st-century replica of the Titanic. I am not sure how I feel about naming new vessels after maritime tragedies. On the other hand, the Titanic may be as well known today as the setting for a movie, as it is as an ill-fated passenger liner.
I have to admit that I have the same mixed feelings when I heard recently that Florida entrepreneur, Charles Kropke, is endeavoring to revive Windjammer Barefoot Cruises and Chalk Ocean Airways. Both ventures had long and interesting histories which unfortunately ended badly. Mr, Kropke is also attempting to revive the Belleview-Biltmore Hotel in Belleair, Florida
Windjammer Barefoot Cruises was founded in 1947 and offered low key, economical cruising on a variety of refurbished sailing ships in the Caribbean. In its later years, there were complaints about safety, a lack of vessel maintenance and sporadic payment of wages to the crews. In 1998, the company flagship, the 282-foot steel-hulled four-mast schooner Fantome, sank in hurricane Mitch, with the loss of the crew of 31. After the Fantome loss, the company battled lawsuits from the crew’s families as well as ongoing IRS investigations. New and tougher SOLAS regulations also forced some of the oldest ships out of service. Windjammer Barefoot Cruises went out of business in 2008.
Chalk’s Ocean Airways is also a company with a long and storied history. It traces its history back to Arthur “Pappy” Chalk, who started the Red Arrow Flying Service in 1917. It operated in the Caribbean and the Gulf and saw a range of different owners and trips in and out of bankruptcy. Chalk’s suspended operations after the crash of its Flight 101 on December 19, 2005. The plane was a 1947 Grumman G-73T Turbine Mallard and it crashed after its starboard wing ripped off in flight due to metal fatigue. 20 died in the crash.
We can only hope that Mr. Kropke succeeds in reviving the more positive aspects of the two firms. Kropke has purchased the refurbished S/V Mandalay, a 236′ barquentine built in 1923 for E.F. Hutton. The ship will be operating under Windjammer Sailing Adventures based out of Grenada.
Entrepreneur aims to restore Windjammer, Chalk’s and other Florida travel relics
Thanks to Irwin Bryan for contributing to the post.
Mr. Kropke should be applauded and wished nothing but good will for his devotion to bringing back iconic companies that once graced South Florida! We have lost so many of our adventures to foreigners that are coming and building in our city. A big example is the Miami Herald building. Why do we think the new is better than rebuilding the old? We love our heritage of South Florida and I, for one, am grateful to Mr. Kropke for his dreams and commitment to seeing them through. God Speed!
The S/V Mandalay worked decades as the Research Vessel R/V Vema operated by Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory (then Lamont Geological Observatory), an arm of Columbia University. Many tales attend her famous scientific exploits: one or two tragic, some miraculous. The director of Lamont, Maurice Ewing, was swept overboard in heavy weather, then swept back aboard on another wave. I relate below my favorite episode.
The Vema undertook seismic profiling to determine the substructure of the seafloor. This required… in those ancient days… pitching a half pound block of TNT over the side about every minute and then record the returning echoes. A 18 inch baloon was attached to each block so that it wouldn’t sink any deeper, otherwise bubble pulses from the detonation would wipe out the return reflections. The baloons were absolutely vital to that technique.
The Vema had been conducting such a survey along a lengthy track that eventually brought her into Buenos Aires where she would have to restock on baloons having exhausted the supply on board. The Vema arrived the day after Mardi Gras. There wasn’t a baloon left in all of Buenos Aires and none to be had again for weeks. The Vema had to maintain schedule and set sail for South Africa almost immediately. The crew quickly found a way out of the dilemma.
I know this because although I was not on that cruise, I was at Lamont and happened into purchasing to find the staff literally on the floor, paralyzed with hysterical laughter. They had just received the purchase order (money already spent) that covered the expense of the Vema’s solution to the baloon problem. This they would have to forward to the Navy which was providing the funding. The resourceful crew of the Vema, about 43 men, had scoured all of Buenos Aires to meet their seismic needs and then set sail for South Africa with… 50,000 condoms.
The Navy apparently never questioned the purchase.
The crew did grumble on their return that half of what they had purchased was… defective.
What a wonderful story! Thanks.
I only wish Mr. Kropke good fortune. As I associate the Titanic with a major tragedy, so do I associate Windjammer Barefoot Cruise with the shoddy and probably dangerous operations of its later days, just as I associate Chalk with an overaged plane that killed more than 20 people when its wing ripped off in flight. As I noted in the post I hope Mr. Kropke restores the good names of the defunct companies.
There is also a company in Queensland, Australia, called ‘Barefoot Cruises’; a boutique tourist operator taking romantic couples on four day cruises of the Whitsunday Islands aboard a timber 1930s square rigged ketch. They have been operating successfully since 1988; see http://www.barefootcruises.com.au .