SV Fantome

P1

• Flying Cloud

The Fantome was a 1927 -built charter sailors, the 31- man crew sank in October 1998 before the Honduran coast. It was originally built as a private yacht Flying Cloud for Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster.

History

Service times

The Duke of Westminster was the ship built in 1927 as Flying Cloud at the Ansaldo shipyard in Livorno. The four-masted Barkentine one of the world's largest ships of its kind and could accommodate 128 guests. After ten years, the Duke sold the ship to Nelson B. Warden of Philadelphia, who had provided it with two more powerful diesel engines. After a sale to H. J. P. Bomford bought Sir A. E. Guinness, a member of the famous brewing family, the sailors in 1937 and renamed it Fantome III. In 1948, Guinness died in 1956 and the ship went to the Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, who had it rebuilt in Kieler HDW - German shipyard. Later, the yacht was initially to around 13 years in Germany, where her condition worsened considerably. In 1969 Mike Burke, founder of the U.S. Sailing cruise shipping company Windjammer Cruises from Florida the ship and left it only to Skagen and then drag to Spain, where it was renovated for about six million U.S. dollars and converted to a charter sailors.

Demise of the Fantome

On 26 October 1998 the ship was under the command of 30-year Captain Guyan March from his last passengers in Belize City and left out of the harbor to avoid the approaching Hurricane Mitch. The following day there was a last contact of the ship to their shipping company Windjammer Barefoot Cruises in Miami Beach. The ship's officers indicated that they approximately ten miles south of the island of Guanaja located in front of the Honduran coast and was advised a storm with wind speeds of 100 knots and wave heights of up to 13 meters. A C- 130 aircraft of the Coast Guard began after the first improvement in the weather on Thursday evening of October 29 with looking over the sea area east of Honduras. On Friday, the search was continued and supported by forces of the Honduran Navy. After six unsuccessful days of searching we stopped this.

The sinking of the Fantome with the loss of 32 lives has led to complaints of survivors at a court in Miami. This made ​​it clear in his trial that the expiry of uninsured Fantome worth about 20 million U.S. dollars to print the shipping company Windjammer Barefoot Cruises at the given weather conditions posed a suicide mission for the crew and the ship.