Te Vega is a two-masted, gaff-rigged auxiliary schooner. Originally launched as the Etak, she 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 Germaniawerftshipyard in Kiel, Germany, and launched in 1930. During World War II she served the US Navy as Juniata (IX-77). She is among the largest steel-hulled schooners afloat.
Some of the ship's more colorful owners have been Adolph Dick of the Dick sugar and banking family of New York; Hans-Wilhelm Röhl, co-owner of the Rohl-Connolly Co. (builder of the Port of Los Angeles breakwaters) and investigated in 1942 for pro-Nazi sympathies; aviation pioneer Thomas F. Hamilton; Crane Co. heir Cornelius Crane; renowned Honolulu-based skipper Omer Darr; Stimson Lumber Company scion Harold Miller; Dutch financier (and kundalini yoga teacher) Pieter Schoonheim Samara; and Calisto Tanzi, ex-chairman of the Parmalat group. In January 2006 she was sold to Italian fashion magnate Diego Della Valle (Tod's et al.).
She was built with a 200-hp American Winton marine diesel engine, which was replaced by a 400-hp English Mirrlees in the 1950s. From the mid-1990s she has had a 700-hp German MTU. Launched with a black hull, she has had white and dark blue hulls as well. She has flown the flags of the United States, France, Liberia, Panama, The Netherlands, and Italy (current).
Army controversy
Allegations were made that Army officers involved in construction of Pacific air ferry routes and bases prior to the war mismanaged the effort and had improper associations with Röhl, particularly with respect to the proposed charter of his yacht Vega as a survey vessel.
Navy
The yacht, then named Vega, was offered by Röhl to the United States Coast Guard and accepted on July 9, 1942. Subsequently Vega was acquired by the US Navy from H. W. Röhl in 1942, renamed Juniata and designated (IX-77). The vessel was placed in service on August 11.
Juniata was assigned to the Western Sea Frontier and was based at San Francisco, California. She alternated with other ships on patrol for the great circle route to Hawaii, sailing to and from her station some 500 miles west of Eureka, California. Juniata was placed out of service at Treasure Island, San Francisco, California, on 1 January 1945, returned to the Maritime Commission, and sold to Thomas Hamilton in June 1945.
"Birds Observed on Various Polynesian Islands aboard the Research Ship Te Vega" (Elepaio, No. 27, 1966).
"Aspects of the Physiology of Terrestrial Life in Amphibious Fishes" (Journal of Experimental Biology, No. 50, 1969).
"Nitrogen Uptake by Phytoplankton in the Discontinuity Layer of the Eastern Subtropical Pacific Ocean" (Limnology and Oceanography, September 1970).
"Studies on the fauna associated with the deep scattering layer (DSL) in the equatorial Indian Ocean, conducted on R/V TE VEGA during October and November 1964" [proceedings of an international symposium on biological sound-scattering in the ocean, 1972].
"Te Vega: Teaching School on the Sea" (Saint Petersburg Times, August 24, 1972).
"The Living Ship Still Lives" (Yachting, January 1973).
"Rolf L. Bolin, Marine Biologist, Stanford Professor, Dies" (New York Times, August 24, 1973).
"»Quite normal pupils«...nur ganz billig ist für sie die schwimmende Schule nicht" (Kieler Chronik, October 4, 1974).
"Jovens americanos gostaram de ver brasileiro sempre sorrindo" (A Província do Pará, April 15, 1975).
"Ecology of Conus on Eastern Indian Ocean Fringing Reefs" (Marine Biology, March 1975).
"Bermuda Gets an Early Taste of Tall Ship Fever" (Royal Gazette, May 27, 1976).
Cover photo (The Bermudian, August 1976).
"Marine Algae of the Te Vega 1965 Expedition in the Western Pacific Ocean" (Atoll Research Bulletin, No. 209, May 1977).
"Eine komplette höhere Schule kam unter Schonersegeln nach Lübeck" (Lübecker Nachrichten, October 28, 1977).
"Te Vega in Leningrad" (The Yacht, June 1986).
"Te Vega in the Mediterranean" (Sea History, Autumn 1986).
"Making Headway Aboard Te Vega" (SAIL, November 1986).
"Tweemastschoener TE VEGA onder Nederlandse vlag" (Spiegel der Zeilvaart, issue No. 1, 1988).
"An East-West Sail For the Environment" (New York Times, June 5, 1989).
"US-Soviet Environmental Project Develops Into Cultural Success" (Boston Globe, September 10, 1989).
"Tweemastschoener TE VEGA van klassiek jacht tot schoolschip" (Spiegel der Zeilvaart, issue No. 8, 1990).
"The International Program of Research on Latimeria in the 1960s" (Environmental Biology of Fishes, April 1993).
"Benthic Marine Algae from the Maldives, Indian Ocean, Collected During the R/V Te Vega Expedition" (Contributions from the University of Michigan Herbarium, Vol. 19, May 1993).
"Refitting del Te Vega" (Nautica – Mensile internazionale di navigazione, November 1996).
"«Te Vega», una nuova stella per il RINA" (Registro Italiano Navale press release, 1998).
"Omer Courtney Darr" (San Francisco Chronicle obituary, October 26, 1999).
"Décès d'Omer Darr, pionnier du tourisme de luxe à la voile" (Tahiti-Pacifique, November 1999).
"Exploring Neptune's gardens: From landlubber to reef biologist" (Atoll Research Bulletin Golden Issue 1951–2001, 2002).
"An Affair to Remember" (SAIL, August 2003).
"La scheda: il Te Vega" (Corriere della Sera, January 28, 2004).
"Tanzi implica a banqueros, políticos y Policía fiscal" (ABC, January 29, 2004).
"Yachtverlust" (Financial Times Deutschland, April 7, 2005).
"Della Valle acquista lo yacht di Tanzi" (Corriere della Sera, January 21, 2006).
"A Diego Della Valle il 'Te Vega' di Tanzi" (Città della Spezia, January 23, 2006).
"In cantiere a Genova il «Te Vega» e altri 5 scafi d'epoca" (ANSA, February 2, 2006).
"Большая мировая вода" (Novaya Gazeta monthly color supplement, May 2006).
"Ban bèk – Barku di bella" (Èxtra Boneiru [Bonaire, Neth. Antilles], August 8, 2006).
"Capri, aperitivo e tuffo per il Ministro" (Capri Press, August 14, 2007).
"Top 200 – Die größten Segelyachten" (Boote supplement, Sept./Oct. 2007).
"Historia de la investigación marina de la Isla del Coco, Costa Rica" (Revista de Biología Tropical, August 2008).
"Vigilance at Sea" (California Yacht Club's Breeze newsletter, October 2008).
In books
Report of the Army Pearl Harbor Board (Washington: United States Army, 1945).
Give Me a Ship to Sail (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1958).
Many Lagoons (New York: William Morrow & Co., 1958).
