flying cloud memories -1973
Thanks to Ed Hibsman for this first hand report and pictures of his first voyage on the Flying Cloud back in 1973, where Flying Cloud almost met her demise!
…This was real sailing! Away with your cities! Away with the everyday conveniences of life! This was as close as it got to sailing in the Caribbean as merchants and pirates a hundred or more years ago. Here, only the sounds and smells of the wind, sea, and ship surrounded you, along with the warm fresh scents of the Caribbean and its islands. In fact, many of the islands visited by the Windjammer ships were deserted. The luxury liners (labeled as “Foo Foo ships” by Windjammer crew and passengers) dumped out their couple thousand people like herds of cattle at the touristy locales. The “Jammers” (as Windjammer passengers were called) mostly snorkeled, hiked, snoozed, and boozed at islands that had little or no inhabitants. Sometimes, birds, lizards, stingrays, sharks, or barracuda were the only creatures living there!
In July 1973, Ed sailed on the Flying Cloud in the French Antilles of the Caribbean. Little did he know that this trip was to be more adventurous than most.
While the Flying Cloud was sailing between islands one day, a terrible failure occurred in the propeller shaft of the old ship. The shaft cracked and began sliding out of the ship. Power was lost, and water began flooding the ship immediately. Soon the ship began listing to the port stern side. Passengers and crew were horrified of the life raft situation - World War II era rafts made in Stockholm, Sweden. The Captain quickly radioed for help.
Help was slow in coming. In the meantime, the ship started sinking. Crewmembers made heroic efforts and dove beneath the ship to try and plug the leak as best as possible. The crew began tossing all non-essential items overboard to lighten the load. One lady, who mistook the Windjammer for a “Foo Foo” cruise and dressed a bit nicer than all other passengers, screamed as her luggage was thrown overboard. Passengers stood by anxiously, wondering if they would abandon the ship for life rafts.
Finally, a French ship was hailed on radio by the captain on the Flying Cloud. Unfortunately, the French captain did not speak English, and the Flying Cloud captain did not speak French. The captain asked if anybody on the Flying Cloud spoke French. Ed answered the call and put his high school French to work.
Communicating with the French ship proved sdifficult. The French captain did manage to get a question through asking for the location of the Flying Cloud. Unfortunately, the language barrier prevented the coordinates from being conveyed. The French ship asked if a flare could be fired off to visually identify the location of the Flying Cloud. Unfortunately again, bad luck and poor ship maintenance led to failure. The flare gun’s watertight encasing had been broached, drowned under seawater in the deckhouse, and ruined. Finally, Ed was able to convey to the French captain that he should fire off a flare to identify how far apart they were. When the ship fired its flare, all that could be seen was a tiny little spark on the horizon. Help was pretty darn far away!
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Before the perilous accident at sea!
After the Perilous accident at sea
Ed and the Flying Cloud
Flying Cloud listing to Port and Stern
Flying Cloud under tow by a French Tug Boat
Ed and Long time Windjammer Captain Adrian
Still Floating
French newspaper from Fort-De-France Martinique reporting the rescue.
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The next question put to the French ship requested a boat to come to the rescue the Flying Cloud. The words “rescue” and “help” were difficult to convey through the language barrier, but a request for a tugboat seemed to get through. However, when the French captain started laughing, he also asked the Flying Cloud why it wanted a “toy boat with a little string to pull it”!
Eventually, the message was understood and a French tugboat soon appeared. The passengers eagerly awaited their opportunity to get off the sinking ship. But instead, a man in a suit and tie jumped onboard the Flying Cloud from the tugboat and prepared to negotiate terms for the rescue “fee”. Of course, the tugboat representative had quite a bit of leverage for negotiations. Passengers and crew were not allowed to leave the Flying Cloud, because according to maritime law, when a ship is abandoned, another party can take claim to it. The passengers and crew had to wait until payment terms were agreed upon. Then, people were loaded into the launch boats, which were lowered from the Flying Cloud, and the French tugboat rigged the ship for tow.
On July 13, 1973, a Fort-de-France Martinique newspaper published an article about the rescue of the Flying Cloud. Soon after that trip Captain Mike, the owner of Windjammer, contacted Ed and other passengers and asked for $5,000 to help raise cash to repair and retrofit another one of his struggling ships. Many people scoffed at the request and never again returned to Windjammer. Ed took a chance and coughed up the dough, in return for 2 trips per year for life.
