When the two-masted racing schooner yacht "Amphitrite" was launched at the renowned Camper & Nicholsons shipyard in 1887, large wooden sailing ships without engine propulsion were no longer up to date. Nevertheless, Alexander Donald McGregor decided against a modern steel steam yacht with amenities such as central heating when he commissioned the shipyard in Gosport, England, to build it in 1884. He now received his 161-tonne masterpiece from designer Ben Nicholson Senior. The wooden schooner made of teak on oak, with a 33 metre high main mast and a canvas area of up to 1360 square metres, is his last, best and most beautiful sailing yacht design.
McGregor, born in 1845, wanted a slim, fast ship with a streamlined outer keel made of lead and also a swivelling centreboard to enable stiffer, more effective and more versatile sailing. However, the centreboard was removed again at the end of the 1889 season. As Camper & Nicholsons' construction plans were apparently destroyed and have not been found to this day, little is known about the use of the centreboard.
The requirements for the schooner were extensive
"The hull had to be able to carry the highest masts and the largest sail area. It therefore had to be built exceptionally strong in order to withstand the enormous pull of the shrouds and stays with the large sail area and strong winds," writes Günther Bendt in the book "Amphitrite - one of the oldest sailing yachts in the world". First published in 1990 by Ewald Kruse at Koehler Verlag, editor Theo-Peter Koesling was responsible for a significantly expanded new edition of the work in 2012. In it, the team of authors was able to expand the life story of the "Amphitrite" to include aspects of shipbuilding and regatta activity in the 1880s and 1890s.
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The 44-metre schooner, which bears the name of one of the 50 daughters of the Greek god of the sea Nereus and the Okeanide Doris, was very active in regattas. Alexander Donald McGregor was accepted into the Royal Yacht Squadron in May 1888 and took part in regattas for the first time at the beginning of the season. In 1889, the "Amphitrite" achieved her first victory, which was followed by many more.
Adaptations for learning purposes on board
"The huge mainsail from back then would no longer be manageable with youth groups," says Ansgar Höffe, one of the ship's volunteer captains. With the current division of the sail plan into three masts, the "Amphi", as it is affectionately known by the regular crew, has a more manageable and, above all, uncomplicated rig. "After two or three days, the often inexperienced guards can normally tack and jibe on their own," explains the captain. "The only thing that requires a little practice is setting and recovering the large wide jib. However, it's worth it because of the benefits of the square sail in aft winds."
Ansgar Höffe, born in 1952, joined Clipper in 1976. The seafaring student stepped in at short notice as helmsman on the club ship "Seute Deern" when his lecturer was unable to attend. Since then, he has sailed on Clipper yachts every year. The navigator made his first professional voyage as a captain on a long voyage in 1985, became a Weser pilot in 1992 and retired at the end of 2017.
The "Clipper" association operates the schooner
He has been at sea as a captain with Clipper - Deutsches Jugendwerk since 1988, usually for two to four weeks a year. "Basically on each of the four association ships," says the 66-year-old. "Most rarely on the 'Jonny', most often on the 'Amphi'. I like her best because she's the oldest, most beautiful and most interesting ship to sail." Like many other regular crew members, Höffe is fascinated by the 132-year history of the "Amphitrite", which is one of the oldest sailing yachts still in operation in the world.
The Clipper Association is the 21st owner of the yacht, which was mostly called "Amphitrite", but also went by the names "Dolores", "Joyfarer", "Hinemoa" and "Amphitrite af Stockholm". First owner McGregor sold the ship in 1892 to multimillionaire Frederick Wills, who enjoyed the schooner's greatest regatta successes until it was sold on in 1899. The victory over the larger "Yampa", achieved at an average speed of just over 13 knots, made the schooner "Amphitrite" internationally famous. In 1897, she sailed from Dover to Helgoland as part of the Jubilee Cup regatta. The German Kaiser Wilhelm II had donated the cup to mark the 60th anniversary of Queen Victoria, his grandmother, on the throne. In Germany, the "Amphitrite" took part in the Kieler Woche.
The long career of the "Amphitrite"
For the next two decades, the "Amphitrite" was used as a cruising yacht and underwent numerous modifications. During the First World War, she remained undamaged under the ownership of William Henry Peech, underwent further modifications and was fitted with state-of-the-art technology: two powerful propulsion engines, a generator, an electric anchor winch and a steel deckhouse clad in wood behind the schooner mast. This was followed by further owners, newer engines and in 1924, after the last regatta, the saloon and the aft deckhouse.
To this day, various structural details are reminiscent of its former use as a luxury yacht. For example, the exquisite furnishings with the magnificent desk in the saloon. At Clipper, this is available to the entire crew; when the yacht was a private yacht, not even the captain had access here: "For the owner only!"
In 1942, the British Admiralty had the rigging removed so that the schooner could be used as a balloon barrage carrier against low-flying aircraft in Plymouth Sound during the Second World War. When Colonel W. R. Charter MC bought the yacht on 1 August 1947, she was in a pitiful condition. The leaking deck was particularly problematic. To save the Hulk from the ship graveyard, a "shipyard was needed to expertly caulk the deck, replace rotten wood and repair the worst damage", according to the book about the "Amphitrite".
The construction phase of the "Amphitrite"
In order to be able to place this order with the Camper & Nicholsons shipyard, the lead keel had to be sold and replaced with cheaper granite as ballast. When the "Amphitrite" arrived at the shipyard in 1950, 83-year-old designer Charles E. Nicholson (one of Ben Nicholson's three sons) could hardly believe "that 62 years earlier he had had the audacity to raise the sternpost of the yacht to 45 degrees when it was converted into a racing schooner".
His father modelled the schooner "Amphitrite" on cargo ships rather than sailing yachts. "The frames measure a good 15 by 15 centimetres, with two frames next to each other at a distance of only around five centimetres, forming a pair. The frames support planks that are just under eight centimetres thick on the outside and inside. Only the best and most durable materials were used in the construction of the "Amphitrite". Each of its more than 200 frames consists of just one piece, the curvature of which was not bent using steam, but has grown naturally. The frames as well as the mighty keel beams, stem and sternposts, the inner planks, the stringers and the deck beams are made of the best English oak. The strong outer planks were cut from the best Burma teak."
From August 1947 to November 1955, the Charter family used the yacht as a residential vessel without a rig. Now they moved back ashore and sold the ship. It was rigged as a three-masted gaff schooner in order to enter the charter business in the Mediterranean. However, the yacht had barely arrived there before it was up for sale again and changed hands several times at short intervals over the following years. In 1958, she was rigged as a barquentine.
The schooner comes to Germany at the end of the 1960s
In 1969, the "Amphi" comes into German hands. The Berlin meat trader Horst Krumke buys the schooner for 400,000 marks. He had previously founded Horst Film KG, which was commissioned by WDR to produce a sailing ship series about Count Luckner for television.
There are 39 episodes in three seasons, telling the fictional story of the "Sea Devil", who sails around the world on his ship "Niobe". Count Luckner is played by Heinz Weiß, who later becomes the captain of the ZDF dream ship. The "Amphitrite" is also used for the film "The Secret of the Mary Celeste", although it is a three-masted barquentine instead of a two-masted brigantine. Hans-Joachim Kulenkampff and Wera Frydtberg can be seen in the leading roles.
When some scenes have to be reshot for the Graf Luckner television series, Captain Günther Kleen is hired. He travels to La Napoule in France and has a special assignment from the young Clipper Association in his pocket: he is to check whether the "Amphitrite" is a suitable ship and whether the owner Horst Krumke would sell it at a reasonable price.
In November 1973, the crew comes on board for a transfer from the Mediterranean to Bremerhaven. It consists partly of Clipper people. The club only wanted to continue the sales negotiations after a dock inspection in Germany. The voyage becomes adventurous. As the wind picks up, the forepeak first breaks off under the bramrah and later collapses completely. In addition, the main peak halyard breaks, gets caught in the water in the starboard propeller of the engine and puts it out of action. Water penetrates below deck, causing a fire in the switchboard and knocking out a large part of the ship's electrical system. The jib boom also breaks.
Technical difficulties and remodelling
On 9 November, the battered "Amphitrite" moored in Menorca. It was not until the beginning of September 1974 that the voyage was resumed from Barcelona after a stay in the shipyard. On 20 September, the ship reaches Bremerhaven with the last drop of diesel. Once again, it takes on a lot of water, one of the two engines breaks down, an emergency sail is required and the electrical system is very unstable.
Nevertheless, Clipper buys the "Grand Old Lady" and the extensive refit is completed in March 1976. More berths were installed for use on youth cruises; in the foredeck there are 16 trainee berths in bunk beds. The cosy, elegant mess room is located aft, where even the generators are no longer a noise nuisance - the noisy auxiliary diesel engine was replaced with a fully soundproofed unit before the start of the 2019 season. On the narrow aft passageway to port is the helmsman's cabin with two berths and, behind the stylish staircase, the narrow captain's cabin, known as the "closet". To starboard, from fore to aft, there is a six-person cabin, the second helmsman's cabin and the rooms for the cook and engineer. In the stern is the sail hold, which also houses the refrigerator and freezer.
The two toilets on board are located in the forward superstructure on deck. In spring 2006, the "tandem loo" with two adjacent toilet bowls was replaced by two toilets with a partition between them. Both toilet rooms in the newly constructed deckhouse have an outside door, washbasin and shower. There are three further washrooms below deck.
Good wood needs good care
As a three-masted gaff schooner, the former regatta ship with a maximum of 450 square metres of sails on the wind (plus 90 square metres of wide jib) still has just under a third of its former surface area. The new schooner mast is made of steel instead of more expensive wood. "The crack in the wooden deck from the impact of the yard during the crossing was treated like a shrine for years," says Höffe. In the meantime, however, a new deck has been laid.
The season for the "Amphitrite" begins at the Hamburg harbour birthday. After numerous Baltic Sea cruises, the schooner is then often sailed to J. Ring-Andersen Skibsværft in Svendborg in mid-October to be refurbished over the winter. The "Amphi" has been in the hands of the Danish wooden boat specialists for around 30 years. They also produced the slimmer, wooden sterns in 1993. At that time, the mizzen mast was again fitted with a gaff sail instead of the tall sail that had been used in the meantime. This sail is still in use today.
The hull has had a natural wood look since 1981. The original elegant white and intermediate black cannot be painted with modern colours on the wood, which forms an oil film. The decision was therefore made in favour of the open-pored, easy-care wood protection with Benar oil. Only the gallion, stern ornament, nameplates and a wide white stripe above the water pass and above the wall rail are still coloured in red and white.
The strength of the "Amphitrite": its robustness
The robustness of the 132-year-old ship is still impressive. The only problematic areas are those where steel meets wood, i.e. the fittings. This is why the "Amphitrite" has been spared for a good ten years. Ansgar Höffe is one of only two clipper skippers to have sailed round Skagen on the "Grand Old Lady". This trip will not be repeated; the North Sea or even the Atlantic are now taboo.
A turning point: Alexander Donald McGregor had the "Amphitrite" built in 1887 so that he could sail even in the heaviest weather. "To do this, he had to be able to rely absolutely on his ship, and he could only do so if it was so reliable and robust due to its structural qualities that its owner did not have to fear costly and lengthy repairs," says the book about the yacht.
But today, the old lady needs to be spared a little. For a good reason: to be able to add many more years to her chequered history on the Elbe and the Baltic Sea.
This article first appeared in YACHT 18/2019 and has been revised for this online version.
Technical data "Amphitrite"
- Shipyard: Camper & Nicholsons
- Year of construction: 1887
- Total length: 44.33 m
- Width: 5.70 m
- Draught: 3.70 m
- Mast height (above deck): 28.00 m
- GT: 110
- Sail area: 540 m²
- Engine: 2x 173 kW/235 hp
