Mystery Ship

When we came into Channel Islands Harbor during the SoCal Ta-Ta in September, we spotted a large wooden vessel that looked familiar, but as though she might be missing something. When we got close enough to see her name board, we saw that she was indeed the Baltic trading schooner we used to anchor next to all the time off Caneel Bay, St. John, in the U.S. Virgin Islands. What made her look different was that without her 24-ft bowsprit, she was only 77 feet long.

This 280,000-pound beauty was built to haul granite across the North Sea 101 years ago, has a windlass from a German U-boat, and has an interior that Chris Caswell brilliantly described as "Haight-Ashbury-hippie-pad-meets-Swiss-Family-Robinson-treehouse."

Can you name the schooner? Hint: Up until three years ago, she’d been owned by rock ‘n’ roll royalty for more than 35 years. Hint: One of his most famous songs was about a hearse he once owned.