FLYING CLOUD 1935 ex OISEAU DES ILES

[aukepalmhof]

Built as a steel ship in 1927 under yard No 638 by A. Chantiers Dubigeon at Nantes France, for Compagnie Française des Phosphates de l’Océanie.
28 December 1934 ordered.
17 June 1935 launched under the name OISEAU DES ILES.
Tonnage 660 tons, dim. 48.98 x 8.56m
Auxiliary engine, one diesel 375 hp.
Topsail schooner rigged on wooden masts, when built. Sail area 458 sq. m.
20 July 1935 delivered


22 Nov. 1935 sails from St Nazaire to Papeete via the Panama Canal. Arrived at her homeport Papeete on 25 January 1936.
Then she is used to Fiji and Samoa and carried provision and workers from the Cook Islands to the phosphate mines at Makatea Island in Tuamotu.

15 October 1941 requisitioned by the navy, and became the auxiliary vessel P 780 of the Free French Naval Forces (FNFL).
She got an armament of 2 machine guns which came from a Cam 55 seaplane.
Used to carry authorities of the Free French Forces to Bora-Bora (occupied by US forces at that time.)
During 1943 and 44, she made three voyages to Fiji, and she carried the King of Wallis to the King of Futuna, for a meeting.
1947 She returned to her owners, and carried again provisions and workers to Makatea.

(She was never used as a cadet-training vessel. That she has sunk two Japanese submarines and used as a decoy and spy ship as some websites give, I believe is also a fairy tale.)

1957 Sold to Mexico, she sails from the Polynesian Islands on 26 December 1957 bound for Acapulco converted to a motor vessel, without masts and renamed TUXTLA. Used the next years as a cargo vessel in the coastal cargo and fish trade of Central America waters.
Her Mexican owner was Jose Antonio Couttolene

1965 Sold to Didicated Holding Ltd., registered first at Tortola, Virgin Islands, later Malabo Equatorial Guinea.
Converted in a luxurious sailing cruise vessel with accommodation for 78 passengers and 25 crew.
Tonnage 452 gross, 370 net, dim. 63.40 x 9.70 x 4.80m, length bpp. 49.80, length of hull 56 m.
Now powered by a Cleveland diesel 420 hp.
Barquentine rigged, sail area 1.090 sq m.
Renamed in FLYING CLOUD
Managed and chartered by Windjammer Barefoot Cruises Ltd.

She operated from Tortola, British Virgin Islands in the waters of the Caribbean.
2002 She needed costly repairs which the owners could not afford, and she was laid up.
2007 Barefoot Cruises the manager of the FLYING CLOUD ceased operations.

http://www.equasis.org gives for 2009. IMO No. 5409665, Grenada flag and owner and manager given as Flying Cloud, Saint George’s Grenada.
2008 A diving association of the British Virgin Islands in Tortola the BVI Scuba Organization acquired her to prevent its total dismantling or sale to a scrapyard.
The project fell through and the hull was delivered to a scrapyard in 2009, where she was scrapped.

British Virgin Islands 1986 35c sg 592, scott?

Source: Navicula http://www.tallship-fan.de Mr. Jean-Louis Araignon supplied her early history as OISEAU DES ISLES, his source was Le Chasse Marée, a French magazine of maritime history. Internet and http://www.miramarshipindex.org.nz

[Arturo]

Oiseau Des Isles

French Polynesia 1977, S.G.: 264, Scott: 298.