{"id":383,"date":"2021-09-02T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-03T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jmcw.blog\/pious-puffin\/?p=383"},"modified":"2021-09-19T21:42:55","modified_gmt":"2021-09-20T04:42:55","slug":"1948-captain-cunningham-reid-gibraltar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jmcw.blog\/pious-puffin\/2021\/09\/02\/1948-captain-cunningham-reid-gibraltar\/","title":{"rendered":"1948 Captain Cunningham-Reid, Gibraltar"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n

On February 18, 1948 the Pious Puffin II was registered in Gibraltar under the name of\u00a0Captain Alec Stratford Cunningham-Reid<\/a>. The Captain was a British WWI flying ace credited with seven aerial victories (but not, as indicated in the letter from the shipbuilder, the one who shot down the Red Baron<\/em>). He was a Member of Parliament for periods between 1922 and 1945. His first marriage was to\u00a0Ruth Mary Clarisse Ashley, Lady Delamere<\/a>, and they had a son, Michael\u00a0who was the founder of\u00a0Hippo Point in Kenya<\/a>\u00a0(see below). The Captain and Ruth divorced in 1940 and he then married Angela Williams from 1944 to 1949<\/a>. So Angela would be the Mrs. Cunningham-Reid referred to at the delivery of the Pious Puffin (in the photo album below).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

De Vries Lentsch indicated, in a\u00a0letter to the Curtises in 1974<\/a>, that Captain Cunningham-Reid had purchased a ‘Lemsteraak’ type of yacht prior to WWII. At the conclusion of the war he sought to order a new one, but in 1947 it was not allowed for British subjects to spend British currency in the building of a yacht abroad. During WWII the Captain was having an affair with\u00a0Doris Duke Cromwell<\/a>, so she agreed to pay for the yacht and present it to him as a gift. The original price of the Puffin was $80,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, in the course of the construction, Captain Cunningham-Reid ordered a number of alterations and extras. The price became ‘much higher’, and while Mrs. Cromwell did pay for one or two of the upgrades, she refused to pay the last one. The shipyard sued and put a lien on the Puffin in the south of France, but lost the case. The Captain said that it was not he, but Mrs. Cromwell who ordered the yacht. But by this time the two of them were no longer on speaking terms. (She was in fact, now remarried for one year, to her second husband,\u00a0Porfirio Rubirosa, 1947-1948<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jon Curtis was contacted in June of 2009 by a man from Kenya who was putting some items up for auction in Oxford, including the original delivery album, given to the Cunningham-Reids in the French Riviera:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
Delivery Album<\/div>
\"1947 <\/div>
<\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
1947 Delivery Album<\/div><\/div> <\/a>
Title page of the Delivery Album.
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\"1947 <\/div>
<\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
1947 Delivery Album<\/div><\/div> <\/a>
Given when the Puffin was delivered on the French Riviera.
<\/span><\/div> <\/div>
\"1947 <\/div>
<\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
1947 Ship's Bell<\/div><\/div> <\/a>
Kept by Cunningham-Reid family.
<\/span><\/div> <\/div>
\"1947 <\/div>
<\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
1947 Delivery Album Cover Page<\/div><\/div> <\/a>
The Puffin as it was first delivered.
<\/span><\/div> <\/div>
\"1947 <\/div>
<\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
1947 Saloon<\/div><\/div> <\/a>
The original Saloon furnishings.
<\/span><\/div> <\/div>
\"1947 <\/div>
<\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
1947 Owner's Stateroom<\/div><\/div> <\/a>
Original furnishings.
<\/span><\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
<\/div>