When and If – When the USS Eagle, the Coast Guard three-masted barque, leads the parade of tall ships in an incredibly beautiful and historic parade Saturday, she will lead a parade of many other government and privately owned tall ships in celebration of the 250th anniversary of the United States.
A sister ship of three other ships in the Parade, the German Gorch Foch, the Sagres of Portugal and the Mircea of Romania, she remains the only square rigged ship in the US government service. Built in Germany in 1936, she was acquired by our country ten years later and is used to train Coast Guard cadets.
Each of the ships, nation or privately owned, has a fascinating history of its own, and several who were here for OpSail 76 helping the nation celebrate its 200th birthday 50 years ago, are back with its 21st century cadets to celebrate once again.
Among these are the Libertad of Argentina, the Esmeralda of Chile and its sister ship, the Juan Sebastian of Spain, the Gloria of Columbia, the Gorch Folk of Germany, named for the first Gorch Foch that will taken by the Soviet Union, the very large and “most beautiful ship” the Amerigo Vespucci of Italy, and the Sagres of Portugal.
There is one red-sailed ship in the parade, the Angelique, a privately owned passenger carrier. Its sails are red in the British style of treating the sails with red ocher and other ingredients to prevent mildew.
But sailing for the first time in a tribute to the United States 250th, will be the privately owned If and When. AND IT HAS A FASCINATING STORY OF ITS OWN.
The ship, a 63.5 schooner, is sturdy; she has a double planked mahogany over black locust frame, an oak keel and was launched in November, 1938. She was commissioned by General George S. Patten, designed by famed naval architect John Alden and built by FF. Pendleton of Wiscasset, Maine. Patten wanted to sail her around the world and named her the When and If.
Why the When and If? The General always said he wanted to sail with his family “WHEN the war is over, and IF I live through it.”
Patton took the When and If to Massachusetts where he lived, just before he was deployed to Europe. At least once a year, the General managed to get back home to sail around the North Shore of his native state with his family.
While many wooden vessels during World War Two were requisitioned as sub hunters for the United States Navy, the When and If never saw that service and came through the war in safety. Its owner, General Patton, was not as fortunate, He was killed in a car accident in Germany in 1945, shortly after the armistice. The owner of the When and If never got to live his dream.
The ship remained in the family until the Pattons donated it in 1972 to the Landmark school for children with Dyslexia in Pride’s Crossing, Massachusetts. Presumably the doneee of their choice was honoring Patton who himself was dyslexic.
The ship then provided untold thousands of hours of the happiest times for children of that school. Their families still come sailing and visit the boat both in Massachusetts and Florida, bringing their own families and retelling their own personal sea stories of those unforgettable summers of the 20th century.
But in 1990 a powerful nor’easter tore the When And If from her mooring and put her up on the rocks at Pride’s Crossing. Seriously wounded, with a hole in her port side some described as one you “ could drive a VW bug through”, it seemed like the end of the line for the When and If . That was until two shipwrights from Martha’s Vineyard purchased the wreck and barged her over to Vineyard Haven to give her a new lease of life.
In 1994 to she was launched from the railway at Gannon and Benjamin, earning the company the industry-wide recognition for fine craftsmanship and traditional values in shipbuilding.
The When And If remained in that ownership until 2011` when she was purchased by Doug Hazlitt who had restored the Alden racing schooner Malabar X. He began to undertake the second big rebuild of her life.
Now, with a new teak deck among the most prominent of her new adornments and her length restored to the original 63.5 ft from the 63 it had become during her previous rebuild, When and If once again lays in wait for her next adventure, sailing out of Key West in the summer, Salem, Massachusetts in the winter. And this weekend, General Patton would be proud of her place in line behind the US Coast Guard Eagle as one of the representative of the United States welcoming visitors to our shores.
