Schooner Te Vega
Te Vega is a two-masted, gaff-rigged auxiliary schooner and one of the largest steel-hulled sailing ships still around. It was built in Kiel, Germany, at the Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft shipyard and launched in 1930 as Etak for Walter Graeme Ladd and his wife Catherine Macy Ladd. The name Etak comes from spelling “Kate” backward.
During World War II, the ship was acquired by the US Navy in 1942 and renamed Juniata (IX-77). It patrolled the West Coast, based in San Francisco, making trips toward Hawaii. It was taken out of service on January 1, 1945 and returned to the Maritime Commission, who sold it in June 1945 to Thomas Hamilton.
The vessel has had many roles over the years: private yacht, charter yacht in the West Indies and French Polynesia, and a research vessel for Stanford University’s Hopkins Marine Station (converted in 1964 by the NSF). It also served as a school ship for Flint School and appeared in the travel film South Seas Adventure.
Etak has been renamed several times—Vega, USS Juniata, Te Vega—and is currently known as Deva. Its propulsion has changed a few times: it started with a 200-hp Winton diesel, was upgraded in the 1950s to a 400-hp English Mirrlees, and since the mid-1990s has used a 700-hp German MTU engine.
In 2006, the ship was sold to Italian fashion designer Diego Della Valle.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 21:15 (CET).