southern California racetracks. Via radio, his men at the tracks reported to the gambling ships the progress and outcome of the races. California Attorney General Earl Warren, furious over the loss of revenue through pari-mutuel betting, fought to put the gambling ships out of business. He succeeded in obtaining an order that would force the ships to move twelve miles offshore in water too deep for an

choring.

Cornero continued to operate the ships night and day within the three-mile limit, and "The Battle of Santa Monica Bay" followed. When Sheriff Eugene Biscailuz's posse, the Coast Guard, and policemen boarded the Tango and the Texas, they smashed gambling equipment and furniture. But when they attempted to board the Rex, Cornero's men held off the officials with high-pressure fire hoses.28 In August of 1939 the gambling ships were put out of business when the courts determined that the territorial limit was to be set from the points of land surrounding the bay, not from the main shore line.29 Cornero agreed to pay the state $13,200, and the Rex and the Tango were towed to San Pedro Harbor. 30

Old windjammers' value increased when the United States found itself in

volved in another global war in 1941. South Africa desperately needed lumber because its European sources were cut off by U-boats and the German occupation of the Baltic. Freight rates skyrocketed. That summer the Transatlantic Navigation Company of New York was formed for the purpose of buying hulks of old sailing ships. Capt. Asa F. Davison acquired the Tango for Ossit Pernikoff, a principal in this company.

Capt. J. Ferrell Colton, one of the experts hired to oversee the reconstruction of the sailing vessel, had extensive knowledge of the ship's design, having been aboard the Tango while she was the Mary Dollar in 1930. Also, in 1937-1938, he had sailed on the Moshulu (ex-Kurt), Tango's sister ship. While working on the conversion of the Tango, he served as her first master under the Transatlantic Navigation Company's houseflag.

31

Colton suggested that she be rerigged as a four-masted barquentine, but he was overruled by the owners, who wanted a simple sail plan. 32 It was decided to rerig her as a six-masted bald-headed schooner, which would not require as large a

crew.

Command of the Tango was given to Capt. Carl Gundersen, a Norwegian from

Brooklyn. He had no choice but to use union seamen, who were paid unionscale wages after reaching an agreement with the Sailors Union of the Pacific. The only other nonunion member of the crew was First Mate Peter L. Holt. Unfortunately, Gundersen's log of the Tango's final voyage has not come to light, or we might have a more balanced story of the ship's final voyage.

Two days out to sea a stowaway revealed himself, ready to work. Ira Cheney had dropped out of college to make a voyage on a sailing ship. His father was a shipmaster, and one of his ancestors was Donald McKay, who had built ninety clipper ships. Gundersen liked the spunky lad and made him an ordinary seaman. (After the war, the sea took his life when he attempted to sail a schooner single-handed down the Atlantic Coast.)

Only five crew members had previous sailing experience. Gene Luce, age eighteen, had attended radio school and signed up as the radio operator. Charles LeMon, the cook, had been paroled from prison on the stipulation that he go to sea. His personality and bad cooking would be the cause of major friction on board the Tango.

33

During World War II, sailing ships, which depended on the wind for movement, were in danger from fast destroyers, submarines, and surface raiders. Nevertheless, work was stepped up on the Tango, and in January 1942 a charter was signed with the J. J. Moore Company to transport a cargo of Douglas fir lumber to Durban, South Africa. The lumber was loaded at St. Helens, Oregon.

Ship movements were kept secret, but Lawrence Barber, marine editor of the Oregonian, heard through waterfront gossip that a big sailing ship was about to embark on a voyage. He drove up to St. Helens, but no one without authorized business was allowed on the Tango. However, on sailing day, May 3, 1942, Captain Gundersen invited Barber on board and permitted him to take pictures. Barber was also invited aboard the Columbia River Bar Pilots' schooner Peacock to ac

The voyage was marred by constant friction between the captain and union crew and among the crew members themselves, who held frequent union meetings. LeMon refused to fix a midnight lunch or to let the crew use the galley at night. On May 10 Archibald McPhee wrote, "We'll fix that even if someone has to have a sore head. It's a Hell Ship, Ma!"'35

By the seventeenth, the Tango was near Cabo San Lucas on the tip of Baja California, and the crew was informed that they would sail west of the Galapagos Islands. The cook continued to make life miserable for everyone, especially Joe Kaplan, who was Jewish. He told Kaplan there was no pork in the beans and then told McPhee there was. Kaplan and LeMon got in a fist fight, and the crew had to

By the twenty-first, all fresh meat and fruits were gone. On June 5 they crossed the equator, but feelings were so bad that they did not hold the traditional King Neptune's Court. Thirty-three days had passed, and the Tango was making good time. However, the crew was unhappy over the disappearance of the toaster. Finally, LeMon admitted he threw it overboard to get even with those who complained about his fare.

Joe Kaplan, union spokesman and member of the Young Communists League, was never happier than when "straightening out" the captain or the mate. 37 He told crew members he was going to have the captain thrown in jail at Cape Town. Word got back to Gundersen, who threatened to log Kaplan. It scared Joe, and he made efforts to square the matter with the "Old Man."

On June 17 the captain and the boatswain (pronounced bo'sun) killed an albatross. An old sailor superstition holds that the killing of an albatross brings a ship bad luck, and many of the Tango crew were upset. The captain ordered the cook to prepare the bird for meals, but

McPhee wrote, "I shall not eat any."

Trouble continued to plague the Tango. Just before rounding the Horn on July 10, the lumber load shifted, causing the ship to list. The captain decided to go into Montevideo, Uruguay, to restow the cargo, but afraid of raiders, he changed his mind and decided to push on. While working on the lifeboats, the crew discovered that holes had rusted through, and the craft were unseaworthy. When the cook developed internal hemorrhages, Angelo "the Greek" Varellas took over the cooking duties. Everyone was happier, especially after a good spaghetti din

ner.

On July 24 the captain announced that he had made a four-hundred-mile error in figuring the remaining distance. Machinery broke down faster than Fred Bitte, ship's carpenter and engineer, could repair it. Varellas wanted steward's pay for cooking. He and Hans Moller, branded as labor agitators, had their citizenship papers taken away and were told they could not return to the United States.

Although the crew was unaware of the war's progression, Russia was about to lose the Caucasus, and Rommel was in

Egypt. In early August the Tango was in the most dangerous waters of the voyage, where convoys to the Red Sea and Egypt passed through. This area was a hunting ground for German raiders and submarines. During the night, the Tango traveled without lights.

Getting close to port did not improve tempers. On August 11 Kaplan went to the captain with a list of demands. The captain threatened to handcuff Kaplan to the rail and to have the whole crew jailed on arrival. Kaplan told the captain that upon arrival at Cape Town he was supposed to get ice and fill the icebox with fresh fruit, vegetables, milk, and other provisions. The captain replied, "Instead of getting ice for the icebox, I am going to get straw and put in three live pigs for you.

138

By August 14 the crew had been out to sea for three months and twelve days without seeing land or another ship. Now they were only 130 miles from port. When they saw a ship off the starboard quarter, they worried that it might be an enemy raider or patrol boat, but it was a freighter headed for Cape Town. The winds were strong and prevented the Tango from reaching port, but finally a

tug took the ship into the outer harbor of Cape Town.

Only those who needed medical attention were allowed to go ashore. No agent arrived to pay off the crew, and Fred Bitte heard that the Tango was overinsured. This was never proven. However, the owners had definitely taken shortcuts in rerigging the ship. The overinsurance may have been just waterfront gossip, but when Capt. J. Ferrell Colton found a leak, he was told in essence "to mind my own business and not to mention the matter to anyone."

A complaint was filed with the U.S. consul on August 20 charging that the Tango was unseaworthy and that the lifeboats and pumping equipment should be examined. The crew was told that if the vessel was found to be seaworthy they would have to pay for the survey. Gundersen wired the Transatlantic Navigation Company in New York, which agreed to send enough money to pay off the sick men but refused to pay any of the others until the cargo had been discharged at Durban.

On November 6, 1942, the Tango sailed for Durban with crew replacements for LeMon, Bill Hahn, Varellas, Gene St. Clair, and Mural Lee Rowley. The distance from Cape Town to Durban is 750 miles, but Gundersen laid a longer route to keep the vessel away from the raiderinfested coast and avoid adverse currents. Fear of attack was so great that the men slept with their clothes on and personal papers in their pockets, in readiness for quick abandonment of the ship. The deckload again shifted, causing a troublesome list. During this trip, First Mate Holt went to bed with a rupture, one man broke out with venereal disease, three men had scabies, one man developed appendicitis, and the radio operator broke his glasses.

On December 7, a year after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Tango crept into Durban. The cargo was discharged, and she was loaded with coal for Santos, Brazil. On the day she was supposed to leave a tug slammed into her bow, necessitating repairs. The seamen who were paid

off in Durban included Bitte, Jimmy Burke, Howard Jones, Charles Carlson, and Chuck Hammer.

After thirty-eight days of severe storms, Tango was tugged back into port. Gundersen asked the crew to sign a statement that she was unseaworthy, which

they were only too happy to do. This visit lasted eight months. Second Mate Hans Moller and First Mate Peter Holt were paid off. Archie McPhee was promoted to second mate, and a new first mate, Christoffer Heydenreich, replaced Peter Holt.

The Tango set out again on February 9, 1943. Only Gundersen, McPhee, Luce, Kaplan, and Cheney remained from the original crew. On the second day out to sea, smoke and gasses issued from two hatches. British authorities advised Gundersen to make port at Lourenço Marques, which is now Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, formerly Portuguese East Africa.

The captain told radio operator Gene Luce not to tell the port authorities about the fire but say that they needed a tug because the Tango was too large to tack up the river. Luce was very proud when he announced that his first message had gotten through. When the captain changed his mind and told Luce to wire for a fire patrol, Luce had to tell the port

by Germany during World War II. After this war, she was acquired by an American restaurant and restored as a fourmasted barque, and stationed at Philadelphia as a restaurant and maritime museum when a fire put her out of business. Today she faces an uncertain future. Her excellent steel hull has kept her afloat for eighty-nine years, and she is one of the oldest large windjammers in existence.

Surely England's Poet Laureate, John Masefield, had in mind windjammers such as the Cidade do Porto, ex-Tango, exMary Dollar, ex-Hans when he wrote:

They mark our passage as a race of men Earth will not see such ships as these again.

39

NOTES

1993 by Jane Eppinga

'In the United States alone, there are still over a dozen squarerigged vessels and several schooners including the Balclutha, Charles W. Morgan, Constitution, Constellation, Eagle, Elissa, Gazela, George Stage, Moshulu, Peking, Rose, Star of India, and Wavertree. The Constitution, Eagle, Gazela, and Star of India still carry the flag to sea. The Eagle, a U.S. Coast Guard training vessel, is out to sea much of the time. (Information from Capt. J. Ferrell Colton)

John Steinbeck, The Log from the Sea of Cortez (1962), p. 202. 3Manuel Tinoco, Informe sobre el Distrito Mineral de Santa Agueda (1885).

*G. de la Bouglise, and E. Cummenge, Etude sur le district cuprifere du Boleo (1885).

5J. R. Southworth, The Mines of Mexico Illustrated. History, Geology, Ancient Mining and General Description of the Mining States of the Republic of Mexico, vol. 9 (1905).

"Vernon L. von Pohle, "Alexandre Eiffel's Iron Church," American Institute of Architecture Journal (1982): 47–71.

'Harold D. Huycke, Jr., To Santa Rosalia: Further and Back (1970), p. 6.

Ibid., p. 86.

17Telegram, Hays to American Consul at Guaymas, May 3, 1918, RG 59, NA. 18Hays to Secretary of State, Washington, DC, May 29, 1918, RG 59, NA.

19W. F. Fullam to Hays, May 15, 1918, RG 59, NA. 20Bartley Yost to Secretary of State, Washington, DC, July 16, 1918, RG 59, NA.

21Capt. Roger Welles, Director of Naval Intelligence, to Hays, July 20, 1918, RG 59, NA.

22 Yost to American Vice Consul in Guaymas, Sept. 9, 1918, RG 59, NA.

23 Fullam to Yost, Oct. 26, 1918, RG 59, NA.

24J. Ferrell Colton, Windjammers Significant (1954), p. 143. 25William M. Camp, San Francisco, Port of Gold (1948), p. 2. 26Robert Dollar, Memoirs of Robert Dollar, 4 vols. (1917-1925). 27 The Marine Digest, Oct. 7, 1922.

28 Los Angeles Times, Nov. 30, 1939. 29Ibid.

30In 1948 Tony Cornero survived an operation to remove a gangster's slug from his back. Shortly after his recovery, Los Angeles police gave him the choice of appearing in court on a vagrancy charge or leaving town. Cornero chose to move to Las Vegas. On July 31, 1955, Anthony Cornero Stralla dropped dead of coronary thrombosis while gambling in a Las Vegas casino. He was trying to recoup about ten thousand dollars in gambling losses.

31 Capt. J. Ferrell Colton to author, Oct. 29, 1992.

32In April of 1990, Captain Colton presented the Smithsonian Institution with a complete set of the Hans builder's plans. 33Lawrence Barber, Tango Around the Horn (1991), p. 55. 34 Lawrence Barber to author.

35 Barber, Tango Around the Horn, p. 76.

36Ibid., p. 77.

37 Ibid., p. 88.

38 Ibid., p. 134.

39John Masefield, "Ships," in John Masefield Selected Poems (1984), p. 83.