By Tim Plaehn, Marinefuel.com News
The schooner yacht Guinevere is actually a pair of yachts of the same name owned by the same person. Edgar Palmer was President of the New Jersey Zinc Company and a trustee of Consolidated Edison. He graduated from Princeton and was a philanthropist for the town and university. He donated Palmer Stadium in 1914 to Princeton paying the entire $300,000 cost. Edgar Palmer was also an avid yachtsman, owning several besides the two Guineveres. He served asCommodore of the American Yacht Club, Rye, New York.
The two Palmer owned yachts named Guinevere were both 3-masted schooners of approximately 200 feet in length. Edgar Palmer gave both of them to the U.S. Navy in wartime, the first in World War I and the second in World War II.
One Guinevere, the second I believe, was built by George Lawley and Son of Boston. The steel 3-masted schooner was the largest American yacht of its times (the 1920’s). It was the first yacht ever to have Diesel engines (the Diesel engine was invented in the 1890’s) which spun Westinghouse generators that propelled the yacht, powered winches to raise and lower the sails, provide cooking power and spin a gyroscope that helped keep the yacht upright. The Guinevere (No 2) went on her trial voyage in 1921.
During World War II the Guinevere was outfitted with a depth charge launcher, one 3 inch and four 20 mm. guns. The 3 inch/50 caliber, as it was called, had a range of 7,000 yards and is the gun you see in the WWII war movies mounted on submarines. During the war, the yacht escorted convoys out of port, helped protect merchant stragglers and did shore patrol against enemy submarines. I could not find any account if the Guinevere survived the war or what happened to it following the war.
This article from the Washington Post in 2001 tells the story of a Navy sailor who served aboard the Guinevere during WWII. The article claims the schooner was the “last sail-powered warship in the Navy.” The article raises doubts about the effectiveness of a sailing warship in the 2nd World War era:
“It was part of the general unreality of World War II, particularly World War II aboard the only schooner on convoy duty in the North Atlantic.
“We were supposed to patrol for U-boats but we stayed just out of sight of the convoys. It would have depressed the merchant sailors too much to think that all that stood between them and Hitler’s navy was a sailing ship.”
With that I lift a drink to the age when men would donate their super-yacht to the war effort and men would go try to sink submarines with a sailboat.
Sources: Other Industries of New England 1924, The Washington Post