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Sea Cloud: The Ship is the
Destination
"The anchor heaves,
the
ship swings free,
the sails swell full.
To sea, to sea!"
By Rod Lopez-Fabrega &
Mary Ashcraft
  Ahoy all you sailors out there! See to your flying jibs and
royals and skysails and spankers and mizzens and all the rest. Better yet, let
the 60-man (and -woman) crew of the legendary Sea Cloud do it for you on a
once-in-a-lifetime weeklong cruise in the Caribbean. And she is a legendary ship with a fascinating
history.
That
19th century sea chantey that begins, "The anchor heaves, the ship swings
free, the sails swell full. To sea, to sea!" could have been composed for
the 1931 launching of Sea Cloud from the Germania boat yard in Kiel, Germany
for its proud new owners, Wall Street tycoon E. F. Hutton and his wife, cereal
heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post Hutton. Even more interesting, you yourself
could be sitting on Sea Cloud's Lido deck listening to her crew of young men
and women sing that rousing homage to ancient sailing traditions as this grand
lady of the seas glides gracefully through warm Caribbean waters.
  Named Hussar V at its
launching, this spectacular, 356-foot-long (counting the bowsprit), four-masted
barque was unique even for a time when such American aristocrats as the Astors
and Vanderbilts also were building palatial yachts. Displaying 32,000 square
feet of canvas when under full sail and more than 10-1/2 miles of rope in her
rigging, the Huttons furnished her with museum-quality antiques and the best of
everything, making sure that she was equipped with 4 eight cylinder
state-of-the-art engines with an output of 6,000 H.P. and a compartmentalized
hull found only on the most advanced ships-of-war of the time. E. F. Hutton was
a high-tech businessman for his day. Among his innovations was the first
trans-continental telegraph outside the public domain (outside Western Union.)
It included a private line from his offices in San Francisco and Oakland to his
office in New York--which gave him a life-saving advantage when the stock
market crashed. Another unprecedented installation on Sea Cloud was an enormous
food freezer below deck, evolved from the innovative new concept of frozen
foods pioneered by the Birdseye division of Marjorie's General Foods. It
enabled the ship to sail for many months without reprovisioning, and, to this
day, makes possible the impressively varied haute cuisine served on board
concocted from rare ingredients free of seasonal constraints.
Some
years later the Huttons divorced. One theory puts the cause of the split on the
fact that E.F. was a staunch Republican and Marjorie supported Franklin D.
Roosevelt. Be that as it may, Marjorie Merriweather Post rechristened the ship
Sea Cloud, and for a time, spent six months out of every year sailing the seven
seas with daughter, Nedina Hutton (better known as actress Dina Merrill). At
the time, this was a very private ship. With a crew of 72 to serve them,
Marjorie and Dina and, at most six guests, sailed from the Galapagos to Alaska
to Montecarlo to any place their fancies took them.
By
1935, Marjorie had found a new husband in Joseph Davies, an advisor to FDR and,
in 1937, the new U.S. ambassador to the Stalinist Soviet Union. Spaso House,
the official residence of the embassy, was stuffed with hidden listening
devices, so the Davies solved this annoying spying by declaring Sea Cloud as the United States' floating
embassy to the Soviets. Loaded with
delicacies in her freezers and often resupplied on trips to New York, Sea Cloud
was a popular embassy with the proletariat officials. Later, when the U.S.
entered World War II, Sea Cloud was rented (for $1 per year) to the Coast Guard
and saw service in the North Atlantic as a U-Boat spotter and weather ship.
This was followed over a couple of decades by ownership in 1953 by Dominican Republic dictator and international
playboy Rafael Trujillo, a time as a hands-on oceanic classroom, and a 1975
attempt to purchase her by Ross Perot. Now, Sea Cloud has a brilliant new life
she can share with you.
  
 
Today, many lives later after her stormy history, totally refurbished and
refitted in 1979 after nearly 50 years of service, Sea Cloud is now the proud
flagship of the Hansa Cruise Company, an entity of the German investment
company, Hansa Treuhand. She has been restored to her former grandeur with the
addition of handsome new cabins on the Captain's and Promenade decks for a
total of 34 cabins, completely new rigging and sails, the latest technical
equipment, including radar, satellite navigational aids and satellite
communications, international phone and telex communication systems, and
restoration of the original owner's and guest's cabins and public spaces to the
exquisite condition demanded by Marjorie Merriweather Post.
   
  Sea Cloud's officers are, in large part, veterans of the German
Merchant Marine, and she is crewed by an international assortment of about
sixty bright, young men and women (close to a 60-40 mix), including highly
experienced sailors and qualified trainees. When the young crew races up the
masts to unfurl acres of canvas, this daily ritual is comparable in every way
to watching an aerial ballet, a sort of nautical Cirque du Soleil. Rounding
out the staff in the galley are a master chef with eight sub-chefs turning out
three haute cuisine meals a day plus high tea and freshly baked snacks
For
several years, Sea Cloud has been extremely active in the flourishing German
cruise market, and, in fact, is better known in Europe than she is in the U.S.,
rated for several years running by German travel publication, "Holiday
Magazine" as the number one cruise ship of its kind afloat. This
exclusivity to the European market has changed. An important aspect of Sea
Cloud's activities has been and continues to be with special interest charters
for such non-profit clients as the Smithsonian, New York's American Museum of
Natural History, and alumni associations from major eastern and western
American universities. However, for the major part of each season, with a crew
of 60 and a capacity for 69 passengers, she now is available to the North
American market for weekly cruises in the Caribbean.
  
  As an
example, a recent fall cruise to the Caribbean began with Sea Cloud's Atlantic
crossing under full sail from the Canary Islands with vacationers escaping
Europe's approaching winter. In Antigua, B.V.I., she was boarded by passengers
who had come in the day before from JFK on American Airline's two direct daily
flights via San Juan with an overnight stay at Antigua's colorful and
hospitable Pineapple Beach Club resort. For the next seven days, Sea Cloud
explored the Leeward Islands of the eastern Caribbean with stops at Virgin
Gorda, Jost Van Dyke, Anguilla, St. Barts, St. Kitts, and back to Antigua.
Highlights included three outstanding meals each day plus four o'clock high tea
and an eleven pm snack; an elegant formal Captain's Dinner; magnificent
demonstrations of seamanship every time the crew climbed the rigging--the Main
mast extends 178 feet above the main deck--to set sails; skeet shooting off the
stern; numerous land excursions at each port of call; informal socializing
every evening with international fellow passengers to the piano accompaniment
of outstanding cruise director, Tom Hook (his real name) and, of course, those
sea chantey serenades by the crew.
As
for the food, on that same cruise, the Calptain's welcome dinner began with:
Variation of salmon and caviar served with a potato pancake and cucumber salad,
followed by Boletus consomme, then palates cleansed with lemon sherbet, a main
course of medallions of veal garnished with foie gras, madeira sauce and
vegetable spaghetti, capped by a dessert of strawberries in an almondbasket and
vanilla ice-cream, all topped off with petits fours and coffee.
What is
it like on board this empress of the seas? Well, it's amazingly relaxed and
friendly. You are surrounded by true "class" in every sense, most
particularly in the kind of service provided, and yet you sense that any
passenger showing unwelcome signs of snobbery will be invited politely but
firmly to walk the plank. Dress is generally informal, though you are requested
to "dress up" (cocktail dresses for the ladies and coat and tie for
the gents) for the Captain's Gala Dinner. Nevertheless, you will find it
difficult to hold back a feeling of superiority when Sea Cloud glides
majestically, pennants flying from the yardarms, into a Caribbean port and docks near one of those humongous
floating hotels with thousands of passengers and multiple meal sittings.
However,
be prepared to pay very well indeed for your taste of aristocratic privileges.
If you decide to occupy the owners' suites, it will cost you $1,190 per day to
hang your `clothes in Marjorie's armoire or read the latest stock market
reports while lounging by E. F. Hutton's working fireplace. At the other end of
the scale, a really small though excellently well appointed cabin (category 6)
for two will cost you $486 per day. Air, land accommodations and land
excursions are not included. It is worth noting that Sea Cloud does not dock in
U.S. ports because her hardwood decks and the exotic woods used in her interior
furnishings do not meet stringent U.S. fire standards, so you will have to fly
to Antigua, British Virgin Islands to catch up with her.
  Is it worth it?
YES--even if it's as a once-in-a-lifetime splurge.
Also,
note that Sea Cloud also cruises the Mediterranean and that she has a sister
ship, the River Cloud which cruises European rivers.
Sea
Cloud Cruises USA, Fax 201-227-9424; E-mail seacloud@att.net
Fielding's
Cruise Finder: http://www.fieldingtravel.com.cf/ships/cs14100/index.htm
Pineapple
Beach Club, Antigua, 800-345-0271
PHOTO
CREDITS: Sea Cloud Cruises USA, Rod Lopez-Fabrega, Mary Ashcraft
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