Lesley Lee Francis is the granddaughter ofRobert Frost. Having retiredfrom the professional staffofthe American Association of University Professors (AAUP) in Washington, DC, she continues teaching and writing. Dr. Francis received her AB degree from Radcliffe CoLLege and her PhD in Romance Languages from Duke University. She became a professor ofSpanish Language, Literature, and history at a number of co Lieges and universities and ran a summer program in Spain. She has Lectured and published extensively on her grandfather; her biographical study, Robert Frost: An Adventure in Poetry, 1900-1918, is available in paperback (Transaction Publishers). Information for this article came from Lesley Frost's unpublished journals, correspondence with Ann Tompkins, and the published works ofElecta Search Johnson. This article has been dedicated by D r. Francis to her German son-in-Law, Roland Jahn, who visited Wander Bird in H amburg with the author and whose contribution to the content and spirit ofthis account was invaluable.
The Fate of N o. 5 Elbe: Under Capt. Tompkin's command, Wander Bird would complete thirteen rransArlanric crossings, sai l the Mediterranean and the Baltic Seas, double Cape Horn, and sail on to Tah iti. In 1941 in the Pacific, Wander Bird suffe red damages in a severe hurricane, which left the Tompkinses faci ng expensive repairs. With lim ited finances and a failing marriage, the great old skipper sadly tied her up in Sausalito, CA, for the las t rime. Gwen Tompkins continued to live aboard and had a house built on the poop. Wander Bird's cotton sails became paint tarps, her masts were cur down, and the wooden hull grad ually deteriorated, seemingly beyond repair. Gwen worked as a jig-fitter in the Marin shipyards during WWII; she and Warwick were divorced after the war and she eventually sold the ship in 1960. In 1968, Harold and Annalise Sommer undertook the arduo us task, a ten-year ordeal entered into by the Sommers and their friends, of resto ring Wander Bird to her form er glory as one of the last surviving pilot schooners from the great era of wooden ships. She was chartered to a non-profit foundation in Seattle in the mid-1990s and sold in 2002 to the Sriftung Hamburg Maririm (Hamburg Maritim e Foundation) and rewrned to Germany aboard a freighter. Further restored, including restoring her name back to No. 5 Elbe, she was handed over to th e Freunde des Lorsenschoner No. 5 Elbe. Since 2004, the association has operated the schooner for day, charter, and instructional cruises. As part of Elbe 5's 125 rh anniversary celebrations last yea r, she was moved to her new hom e Elbe 5 sailing with a reefed mainsail in blustery in the H amburg Sandtorhafen (see www.lorsenschoner.de). winds along the Elbe River, 3 October 2009.
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