Account of the voyage of the schooner 'Albatros'

[California: privately printed, 1955. 11" x 8½" mimeograph typescript, 2 leaves of introductory matter, plus 29 leaves of log; half-page sketch of Albatross; post-bound in green wrappers; some toning of the text; very good. Account of a trans-Atlantic voyage from Rotterdam to Barbados in the Caribbean, via Falmouth and Maderia (of which there is a good account), from July 31 to September 9, 1955. A well-written account of a relatively tame voyage, but the interest in Albatross runs deep. The owner was the American aviator, filmmaker, and novelist, Ernest K. Gann who had purchased Albatross in 1954 from the Dutch merchant marine where she was used as a training ship. Gann rerigged the schooner as a brigantine and she largely cruised the eastern Pacific and the Caribbean for three years, during which time Albatross survived a tsunami in Hawaii. She was also used in the 1958 film Twilight for the Gods (starring Rock Hudson and Arthur Kennedy), whose script and underlying novel by the same title were written by Albatross's owner Gann. Subsequently, Albatross was acquired by Christopher B. Sheldon's Ocean Academy, Ltd. of Darien, Connecticut for use for preparatory college classes and sail training. Over the next three years, Sheldon and his wife Alice ran programs for up to 14 students in the Caribbean and Pacific. On one of these cruises, from the Bahamas to the Galapagos, they were hit by a sudden squall west of the Dry Tortugas. Albatross heeled over suddenly and sank almost instantly, taking with her six of the crew. Much controversy surrounded the sinking, many thinking that Albatross was top-heavy and unseaworthy due to the reconfiguration of the rig and superstructure by Gann. An account of the history of the vessel, and its subsequent demise, accompanies this log.