Fantome was a two-hundred-and-eighty-two-foot-long four-masted schooner which was originally built for the Italian navy. The Duke of Westminster turned it into a yacht and sold it to Greek shipping magnate, Aristotle Onassis, who then gave it to Princess Grace and Prince Rainier of Monaco as a wedding present. It was later sold to Captain Mike Burke and became the flagship of Windjammer Cruises.
In 1975 I did a cover story for Carte Blanche Magazine. I was offered a position as Advertising Manager of Windjammer.
On October 26/27, the Fantome went down in the middle of Hurricane Mitch, a Category 5 storm, with winds in excess of a hundred and eighty m.p.h. When it was obvious that the storm had been upgraded, passengers and non essential crew were dropped off in Belize while the crew of thirty went back out to sea in hopes that they could avoid the storm. Except for debris after a three week search over a hundred and forty thousand square miles the Fantome has not been found.