Built as a wooden two-mast topsail schooner by the Mathew Turner shipyard in San Francisco for the French Navy.
Launched under the name PAPEETE.
Tonnage 135 tons grt., 122 net, dim. 34 x 9 x 3 meters.
Sail area 750m².
1892 Completed. Building cost 106.846.50 Fr.
Her delivery voyage from San Francisco to Tahiti made she under command of the German Capt. Vas and an American crew. She made the passage of 3.663 miles in 17 days and 20 hours with an average speed of 8 knots.
19 March 1892 arrived Papeete, Tahiti.
25 September 1894 during a strong onshore wind, she drifted aground on Tubuai Island one of the Austral Archipelago, opposite the village of Mataura.
October refloated and towed by the tug DURANCE to Papeete, where she arrived 17 April 1895, for repair, which took until 29 June 1895.
1897 She took part in the expedition to the Leeward Islands and particular in the operations against Chief Teraupoo and his rebels.
1901 She is decommissioned and sold to Emile Martin, who installed two petrol engines; he used the PAPEETE for inter-island trade in Polynesia.
15 January 1903 after the passing of a cyclone with it centre over Tuamotu Archipelago, the PAPEETE is at anchor in the atoll of Rangiroa one of that group, on 21 January they is at Fakahina where they found the supercargo of the top-sail schooner LEON, which was abandoned by its crew when the cyclone arrived.
22 January PAPEETE is off Fangatau, where strong winds prevent her from berthing. No trace of the LEON is found, she had disappeared during the cyclone, the supercargo was the only survivor.
25 March 1905 under command of Capt. Michaeli an other cyclone devastated the north of the Tuamotu Archipelago, the PAPEETE at anchor in the main anchorage of Avatoru, on the North West coast of the Rangiroa Island.
In the evening of the 24th they got a strong breeze from the south, and then south west, the sea is wild and strong in the lagoon.
Captain Michaeli gives orders to weigh anchor, then he set course to the north to get so far as possible from the centre of the cyclone.
Two days later she returns to Avatoru anchorage without any damage.
The storm is disastrous for the local shipowners, four topsail schooners and 32 cutters are lost with the loss of 8 lives.
The following cyclone, from 6 till 8 February 1906 destroyed again a part of the Tuamotu Archipelago; the PAPEETE weathered the cyclone out at sea west of Anaa, without much damage.
27 February, on order of the governor she sailed from Papeete with on board the Administrator of the Tuamotu Archipelago, Mr. Charles Macardé.
She carried also supply stores for the Tuamotu group, and will visit and help the peoples on the atolls of this group, which have lost most of their belongings during the cyclone.
28 December 1921 is she sold to Charles Morton Palmer of the trading firm of Maxwell & Co.
The new owner takes out the two petrol engines, and used her again as topsail schooner in the inter-island trade.
In 1925 under command of Capt. John Larsen is she running in very foul weather east of Gambier, the next four days stormy weather, the captain without sleep for four days, when the weather improved he collapsed on deck and was carried down to his cabin.
The following days flat seas without any wind and the PAPEETE drifted slowly early in the morning between the reefs, and when daylight came, she was sitting in the middle of an immersed coral reef.
She needed the help of the population of Gambier to be refloated again.
18 July 1931 sold back to the French Navy, and renamed in ZÉLÉE in remembering of the gunboat of the same name, which during the attack on Papeete by the German Squadron on 22 September 1914 was sunk in the approach of the port by her commander Destremeau.
After she was bought the ZÉLÉE is given in the hands of the chantiers Walker in Fare Ute, who installs two Atlas diesel engines of 45hp.
January 1932 she receives an armament of 1 – 47mm gun, 1 MG, 6 rifles, two revolvers.
Crew 32.
21 July 1932 she accompanied the British cruiser HMS DIOMEDE and the supply tanker NIUKULA when she were bringing a courtesy visit on Tahiti.
Later used also for hydrographical and survey work in the Tuamotu Archipelago.
1940 Used for laying a chain of mines between the breakwaters of Papeete port to prevent enemy ships to enter the port.
The weight of the mines give her a much more deeper draught as normal, and water is seeping in through the hull which normally always is above water level, the hull above water level got dried out and rotten and the caulking gives away.
The crew had to man the pumps, and the next day the mines were quickly discharged.
05 September 1940 the ZÉLÉE is disarmed, then broken up on a shipbreaking yard at Taunoa, her superstructure and sails and other usable parts sold to ship-owners for use on other schooners, and used in a new building the VAITERE, which was launched the same year.
The only things what still remains till today of this famous top-sail schooner of French Polynesia is her ships bell, which is kept in the hydrographic office, and an old table in the office of the commander of the navy, in Papeete.
Source: http://www.netmarine.net/bat/divers/zelee/histoire.htm
The French Polynesian post gives the following on this stamp:
The trading schooner PAPEETE was built by Mathew Turner Shipyard, San Francisco in 1892. This 722 ton?? Vessel with some 600 sq. meters (6.459 sq. ft.) of sails was commissioned for the French Navy based at Papeete.
The navy used this ship in connection with its many functions, stemming from the French presence in French Oceania. The PAPEETE became a civil vessel in 1901 and was used by successive local ship owners for transporting goods between the islands.
The ship rejoined the French Navy in 1931, but was renamed ZÉLÉE in honor of a gunboat with this name that successfully blocked access to Tahiti during World War I by three German cruisers. The ZÉLÉE was taken out of active service and scrapped on 05 September 1940, concluding 48 years of travelling throughout French Oceania. During that time the ship participated in the exciting maritime adventure of French Polynesia first under the name PAPEETE and then under the name ZÉLÉE.
The colourful history of this ship may be found in a small work written by Louis Le Caill.
French Polynesia 1997 92f sg790, scott 706.