Grace (ex. Zapala & ex. SISPUD II)
SISPUD II was built in 1913 by the New York Yacht, Launch
& Engine Company of ~lorrisHeights, New York for Mr.
Joseph B. Cousins Esq. of the Manhasset Bay Yacht Club.
She was constructed of longleaf yellow pine planking on
steam bent white oak frames and is 60 feet overall in
length. SISPUD II was originally powered with a four cylinder,
50 horse power 20th Century gasoline marine engine. She
is unquestionably one of the last remaining examples of
the early gasoline powered yachts built prior to World
War I.
Over the years, SISPUD II was operated by several colorful
owners.
One in particular as Mr. James Adams, owner of the James
Adams Floating Theater. Mr. Adams' theater was towed around
to the coastal towns of the South and brought entertainment
and culture to these isolated areas until it finally sank
in Thunderbolt, Georgia in 1941. SISPUD II followed the
Theater to all of its destinations. It was from her experiences
of living aboard and lraveling with Mr. Adams and his
Theater that Edna Ferber created her novel titled Show
Boat, later to become a smash Broadway play.
SISPUD II was maintained in Bristol fashion until the
late 1970s. Then in the 1980s, she was left abandoned
out of the water in a backwoods boat yard, to begin a
slow death. In 1990, she was acquired by Earl McMillen
and DlOved to a building in Fairhaven, Mass. Today, her
future looks bright. McMillen Yachts, Inc. plans to begin
a major restoration which is due to be mrnpleted in March
of 1996.
Along with her new face lift, SISPUD II's name will be
changed to ZA ALA, which is the Indian name of Georgia's
Sapelo Island. ZAPALA wac; also the name of Mr. Howard
E. Coffin's 1927, 124 foot Luders motor yacht. Mr. Coffin
was a former owner of Sapelo Island, as well as the original
developer of Sea Island, Georgia. It was Mr. Coffin's
foresight and energy, along with the help of his cousin
Bill Jones Sr., that reshaped the future of Ceorgia's
Golden Isles. Now that the new ZAPALA will be relocating
to Georgia and serving the Sea Island Company, what better
name could grace lEI- transom as she begins her new future
and approaches her eighty-third J6lI"!