Some of Passat's international port watch on the upper topsail yard, bending on ligh t tropic canvas, October 1938 in the Northeast Trades. From left, Karl Stark of Canada, Howard Eddy of Connecticut, Holger Stromson of Finland, Tor Lindqvist of Australia, Edvin Johanson of Finland. Below, some of the starboard watch off duty, from the left: Leif Strandvik, retired master mariner; Tom Wells, artist; Tauno Saionmaa, who became a judge in Finland, now deceased; Alf Nyland, killed in the winter war with Russia, 1940; Erling Huppe from the port watch, on duty with chipping hammer in hand. Photos, Tom Wells.
where we did some interesting towing in heavy seas. I mustered out in '46, partly because I wanted so see some sunshine again. But the real reason was a girl I knew long before the war, the sister of my college roommate. Wanda Zallinger and 1 married in '46 and we have two children, Tom Jr. and Jean. I worked as an illustrator in Navy underwater ordinance for twenty years or more. Wanda would say to me: " You are always talking about Cape Horn. Why don't you paint it? Paint the ships you sailed in." And that is finally what I did . What Became of the Ships? A few of the grain ships continued in sail training work, also carrying cargo, after World War II, Passat among them. This came to an end with the loss of the Pamir in 1958. Passat survives today as a national monument in Travemunde, Germany. Her sistership Peking, which was never taken up in the grain trade, is preserved at South Street Seaport Museum, New York. Of the other big barks, Pommern (1903) is a museum ship at Mariehamn, home port of the Erikson fleet, in the Aland Islands, Finland: Moshu/u (1904) is berthed in Philadelphia as a restaurant ship with a notable museum of the sailing era in her Liverpool house; Viking (1907), serves as a youth hostel in Gothenberg, Sweden; Magdalene Vinnen (1921), renamed Sedov, has been sailed by the Russians and was last seen laid up in Leningrad; Padua (1926) last of the great Laeisz four-posters, sails today as the Russian training ship Kruzenshtern, and was seen by millions when she took part in the Tall Ships parade in New York in 1976 . . . . and What of Their People? Cape Horn : that not-so-lofty mountain is represented in every sailor's soul. She still lies there accepting the waves of time on her beaches. I am no longer a young boy, but Cape Horn has become my business. So in 1972 Wanda and I took the cruise ship Monterey to Australia. I wanted to. show her where we sailed years before in Passat. In the little harbor of Port Lincoln, down Spencer Gulf, we saw my old friend the photographer Jack Randall, who
SEA HISTORY, FALL 1980
Cape Hornersforegatherat the Greenwich Congress, 1978. From the left: Lance Potter, Australia, who sailed in Moshulu, 1936; Ron Ti/brook, Australia, Archibald Russell, '37; Tom Wells, USA, Passat '39; Karl Gerisch, West Germany, Pamir '34, '36. Photo: Tom Wells.