The
Eye of the Wind.
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By
Peter Andrews, © 1998.
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| Ploughing through the
mid Atlantic, somewhere between Puerto Rico and Bermuda, June
1992. |
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| After many years absence from Australian waters, the
'Eye of the Wind' sailed into my home town of Wollongong in early January
1998. The ship which was used in movies such as 'Blue Lagoon' and 'White
Squall', was brought up onto the slipway for regular maintenance and
preparation for the Tall Ships Race from Sydney to Hobart on the following
Australia Day. |
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| Built in 1911 by C. Lühring of Brake, West Germany
and originally called 'Friedrich', for twenty two years she sailed from
Hamburg to ports in Argentina carrying salt, then onto Cornwall in Britain
with hides and back to Hamburg with a load of china clay. In 1923 she
was sold to a Swedish company, renamed 'Mary' and worked the Baltic
and North Seas' under a Swedish flag for the next fifty or so years. |
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The 'Eye of the Wind' alongside
at the National Maritime Museum, Darling Harbour Sydney in January
1998. |
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| During this period and as time passed, her sailing rig
was gradually reduced as responsibility to move cargo was transferred
to the ship's first engine, which was fitted in 1926. In 1969, a fire
in the engine room destroyed the wheel house and poop deck and from
this point she sat in Gothenburg until 1973 when found by her current
owners. Within six months, the engine was rebuilt, the poop deck was
replaced and hull plating that was buckled from the fire, was also replaced.
This work was sufficient to ensure a safe passage across the North Sea,
motoring under her own power to Faversham at the mouth of the Thames,
where full restoration back to a beautiful sailing ship was completed. |
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| The first voyage as the 'Eye of the Wind' was a circumnavigation
of the globe, which was completed in 1978 at Plymouth. She then took
part as the flagship of 'Operation Drake' for the next two years, under
the patronage of HRH Prince Charles. This round the world scientific
expedition involved participation of around four hundred youth from
twenty seven nations. The ship was then used in four feature films before
becoming a participant in the First Fleet Re-enactment in 1988. It was
some time in 1990 when the ship was also in Wollongong for maintenance
and while in this part of the world, she sailed as far as Pitcairn Island,
the waters and islands around New Guinea, and Tasmania during the warmer
months. |
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| In the mid Atlantic between
Puerto Rico and Bermuda, June 1992. |
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| In October 1991, the 'Eye of the Wind' departed our shores,
sailing first to Auckland and on across the Pacific to round Cape Horn
with 'Søren Larsen'. From the Horn up to the Falklands, Montevideo
and eventually to Lisbon Portugal, she joined up with a large fleet
of Tall ships which had sailed down from various European ports for
the Columbus' 92 Quincentenary. This fleet joined up with another fleet
at Cadiz in Spain that had come from the Mediterranean and beyond the
Suez. The combined fleet then set off in the wake of Columbus in a tall
ships race to San Juan, Puerto Rico. Beyond San Juan, the fleet had
increased its size again when more ships from the Americas joined in
for the voyage to New York. By this time the number of ships was somewhere
past the two hundred mark and their entrance to New York Harbour through
the fog was a sight to behold. The fleet continued on to Boston and
from there was another tall ships race across the North Atlantic to
Liverpool in the United Kingdom. |
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The "Eye"
at anchor off Provincetown, July 1992. |
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| After the Columbus voyages in 1992, the 'Eye of the Wind'
sailed around the British Isles, the Caribbean, Bermuda and back to
the New England shores around Boston before making her way across the
Atlantic again to call into a host of European ports and participate
in a couple of tall ship races. She also sailed down to Malta in the
Mediterranean and South Africa to take part in the production of 'White
Squall'. Her voyage back to Australia was via the Atlantic and through
the Panama Canal -- calling into the Galapagos and Easter Islands,
Pitcairn, Tahiti, Fiji, Vanuatu before arriving in Cairns on October
1997 after six years absence. |
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| Just on the way back into
the water after two weeks on the Wollongong Harbour slip, January
1998. |
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| From one port to the next and not only with the 'Eye
of the Wind' but any for any tall ship that still gets around, the stories,
people, the adventure, all bind together into wonderful and magnificent
experiences. Being fortunate to sail on the 'Eye of the Wind' from San
Juan to Boston via Bermuda and New York during the Columbus voyage's,
the adventure was incredible. In San Juan on the night before we sailed,
five hundred thousand people, families with their children, some, just
infants clogged the streets and the waterfront to watch a fireworks
display that would rival any in world. To get back to our ship, we had
to jump from one ship to another; climb fences, buildings; and walk
along high narrow walls with the harbour on one side, a sea of people
on the other. Just this alone was enough to attract a spontaneous applause
from the crowd as anything beyond the ordinary would on this occasion.
It was a an event one could never forget, but only one out of many in
the life of a tall ship. |
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| After a rough night off
Bermuda, June 1992. |
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