The two-masted,
gaff-rigged auxiliary schooner Etak (later Electric Light, Vega, USS
Juniata, Te Vega; now Deva) was designed by New York naval
architects Cox & Stevens in 1929 for American businessman Walter
Graeme Ladd and his wife, Catherine (“Kate”) Everit Macy Ladd. Etak
("Kate" spelled backwards) was built at the Friedrich Krupp
Germaniawerft shipyard in Kiel, Germany, and launched in 1930. She
is among the largest steel-hulled schooners afloat.
The ship has changed hands over fifteen times and has
undertaken a variety of functions: private yacht, United States Navy
patrol vessel during World War II, charter yacht in the West Indies
and French Polynesia, research vessel for Stanford University's
Hopkins Marine Station, and school ship for seaborne prep school the
Flint School. She is one of the few tall ships to have appeared in a
feature film, the cinerama travelogue South Seas Adventure.
She has flown the flags of the United States, France, Liberia,
Panama, The Netherlands, and Italy (current). |
