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As the workers of the Krupp Germania Werft laid the keel of a new steel motor yacht one hazy morning in late 1927, no one could have foreseen what a unique and eventful history this newborn ship would experience. Less still might they have imagined that this beautiful yacht, following several transformations and a recent loving and painstaking restoration, would still be gliding through the seas some eighty years later.
HAIDA G, originally HAIDA, was built for millionaire yeast producer Max C. Fleischmann (1877-1952) following plans drafted by the New York naval architects Cox and Stevens. The ship was constructed to be especially strong so that it might serve for long scientific, fishing, and pleasure cruises in the Pacific waters off the Californian coast. Using the latest technological developments, the vessel was equipped with the twin diesel engines that still propel her to this day. Her fuel capacity of 150 tons allowed a range of nearly 8000 nautical miles – enabling her to travel from San Francisco to Singapore non-stop.
The ship was completed in 1929, and following a passage from Germany via New York and through the Panama Canal, her owner berthed HAIDA at the Santa Barbara Yacht Club, California.
As with many of his yachts before and after, Max C. Fleischmann named his ship after the native tribe of Queen Charlotte Island whose seafaring skills he admired so much. Fleischmann, who had a reputation of being slightly eccentric, had the beautiful ship painted black.
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After more than ten joyous years at sea, HAIDA found a new mission when Mr. Fleischmann sold the yacht to the US Navy in October 1940. The ship was completely refurbished and began new duty as a naval vessel: the bowsprit was removed, radar was installed, and a 3.5" gun was mounted on the fo’c’sle. Warren A. Cabral, who served on board the ship, recently said he could still remember clearly how the exquisite original wood panelling was roughly covered with grey paint. Under the name USS ARGUS, call sign “PY14,” the yacht protected the coast in the Patrol Force of the 12 th Naval District out of San Francisco . She was briefly lent to the United States Geodetic Survey, returning to the Navy after eight months. On October 29 th, 1944 the ARGUS rescued the shipwrecked sailors from the Liberty vessel JOHN A. JOHNSON, sunk in the Pacific by a submarine.
ARGUS was decommissioned in 1946 and purchased by a private owner who restored her to her former glory as a pleasure craft. Renamed SARINA, she was owned by the Egyptian cotton magnate Maurice Ada and spent a number of years in Alexandria . During a political disturbance, her owner moved the yacht to the South of France.
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