June 12, 1909
The sailing yacht Carnegie was launched at the Tebo Yacht Basin Company’s shipyard at the foot of 23rd Street in Brooklyn, New York. This yacht, which had been designed by naval architect Henry J. Gielow (1855-1925), was constructed to serve as a scientific research vessel for the Carnegie Institution of Washington (now officially known as Carnegie Science). This organization was established in 1902 in Washington, D.C., by Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919).
The yacht bearing his name was built almost entirely from wood and various other non-magnetic materials — and no iron or steel — in order to allow for much more accurate and far less compromised magnetic measurements undertaken by the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Terrestrial Magnetism. Another then-unique feature of this yacht is that she was initially equipped with a producer gas engine for possible use in winds-free weather. The auxiliary engine was fueled by coal and made principally out of bronze and copper
The christening of the Carnegie with a bottle of champagne was performed by 16-year-old Dorothea Bauer (1892-1978). She was the daughter of Louis Agricola Bauer (1865-1932), director of the aforementioned department of terrestrial magnetism. At 3:10 p.m., Dorothea Bauer broke the bottle (festooned with red, white, and blue ribbons) on the bow of the yacht. The next day’s edition of the Brooklyn-based Times Union reported that “as the hull slid into the basin, it was greeted with cheers from the crowd and whistles from the steamers in the vicinity.”
The Times Union also stated, “The Carnegie party was escorted to the launching stage by a Scotch piper in full Highland costume, playing Scotia’s familiar airs, in honor of the institution and the giver of the yacht, and enlivened the labors of the workmen driving the wedges with occasional skirl.” In addition, according to this newspaper, “The yard buildings and adjacent craft were decorated with flags and bunting, and the hull, moored to the adjacent pier was later inspected by many of the guests.”
The Carnegie was deployed for a total of six scientific research expeditions between 1909 and 1921. During one of these cruises, this yacht set a new record of 118 days for the fastest circumnavigation of Antarctica by a sailing vessel. With respect to those expeditions, William John Peters (1863-1942) captained the first and second cruises; James Percy Ault (1881-1929) captained the third, fourth, and sixth cruises; and Harry Marcus Weston Edmonds (1865-1945) captained the sixth cruise. Taken together, all of these cruises resulted in the Carnegie sailing more than 250,000 nautical miles (463,000 kilometers).
This vessel was laid up from 1921 to 1927 for extensive refitting. The modifications included installing a thicker hull created out of copper; and replacing the original engine with one fueled by gasoline. In 1928, the Carnegie’s seventh expedition began under the command of Ault. This cruise was expected to take three years.
Tragedy struck on November 28, 1929, however, when – after completing 37,366 nautical miles (69,201.9 kilometers) of the voyage – the Carnegie stopped at the Samoan city of Apia in the South Pacific for supplies. The yacht burst into flames while being refueled and was subsequently burnt to the waterline. Both Ault and the cabin boy lost their lives as a result of this disaster.
In the course of her two-decade career, the Carnegie covered nearly 260,692.9 nautical miles (482,803.3 kilometers) across the globe. The yacht ultimately played a pivotal role in key scientific efforts such as the large-scale and more-detailed-than-before mapping of those portions of the Earth’s magnetic field at sea. Carnegie Rupes, an enscarpment of about 166 miles (2167 kilometers) in length on the planet Mercury, was named after this vessel.
Photo Credit: Public Domain
For more information on the Carnegie, please check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnegie_(yacht)
Additional information on the ocean magnetic survey expeditions of present-day Carnegie Science is available at https://dtm-ocean.carnegiescience.edu/
Transportation History 
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