their lumber business in Pasadena into a military contract to build Navy wooden hull tugboats and launch craft on the Orange County shoreline . A noted civic leader , Dora Hill went on to lead the local PTA , was a grand jury forewoman , and was elected to the City Council before becoming the first woman to serve as Mayor of Newport Beach in 1954 .
The Ackerman yard operated on the Lido peninsula where the Newport Harbor Shipyard is located today . Others filling naval contracts include the nearby South Coast Shipyard , a critical supplier of torpedo boats , minesweepers , submarine chasers , and air-sea rescue boats . The shipyard continued to contract with the Navy until 1955 and ceased operations in 1963 .
One of the most notable ships still afloat on the Newport Harbor was originally built as a Navy minesweeper . The Wild Goose gained far greater fame after the war as Hollywood icon John Wayne ’ s personal yacht . Today , it ’ s the Newport Beach flagship for City Cruises Anchored by Hornblower , running party and dinner cruises three to four times per week from its mooring on the Mariner Mile .
“ We ’ re very proud to have the Wild Goose in our fleet ,” says Chase Corum , Senior Captain at Hornblower . “ We try to keep everything as close to the way John Wayne had it .”
It ’ s a particular source of pride for Corum when he ’ s the pilot . A local kid , he got his maritime start with the Balboa Island ferry .
From Newport Harbor High , through Orange Coast College (‘ a proud Pirate ’), to UC Santa Cruz and Chapman Law School , his true calling brought him back to the water . After a few years as a practicing attorney , he returned to the sea with City Cruises .
Corum relates the history of the Wild Goose from its construction at a Ballard , Washington shipyard to its service as a minesweeper around the Aleutian Islands off the coast of Alaska . As her third private owner , ‘ Duke ’ bought the ship in 1962 and dubbed it Wild Goose . For the remainder of his life , the yacht was the actor ’ s personal floating playground where he hosted celebrities and other distinguished guests including two U . S . Presidents ( Nixon & Reagan ) for memorable , if not unmentionable , shenanigans .
Now converted to a dinner cruise ship , Wild Goose still retains a lot of on-board effects as popular show pieces , including Duke ’ s poker table , a vintage diving helmet , and his prized print of the Clarkson Frederick Stanfield painting ‘ The Battle of Trafalgar .’ One more fun fact Corum points out ; Wild Goose is the sister ship to Jacque Cousteau ’ s famed Calypso , both built as identical Navy minesweepers at the same shipyard in 1943 .
Four score was that many years ago when patriotism ran higher than it has at any time in America ever since . The Summer of ‘ 42 left a legacy not only in a popular 1971 film of that title , but in the development of Newport Beach as a community , the foundation of
its marine industry and the history behind Wild Goose , John Wayne , Ned & Dora Hill extending to their great grandson Matthew Mowery , now serving as a Marine Corps aviator . Perhaps in another 20 years , America can recapture more of its common purpose and celebrate a Fourth of July more cohesively in the next summer of ‘ 42 .
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