The Pious Puffin II was next purchased by Russell Crenshaw, President of Walker & Crenshaw, New York. According to his son Dale, “My Dad and crew flew to Europe and sailed the Pious Puffin over from Amsterdam in the mid-1950’s and then he registered it in Panama. He never really kept it in Panama, but moored it in Nassau, Hopetown (Abaco Island, Bahamas), Ft. Lauderdale, Fl, and in Rye, New York at various times.”
Mr. Crenshaw had her registered in Panama starting in 1957, and she remained registered there until 1963. The Puffin was featured in Yachting Magazine’s January 1957 issue, pages 134 and 135. To date, we have not been able to find the full original color copy of this article. But Dale Crenshaw has shared this set of photos from his family, some of which were used in the article:
Open 1956 Photos
We used to cruise around the East coast and the Caribbean in it. It was a gorgeous boat back then and other boats/ships used to circle around us several times taking pictures and to get a closer look at it. Use to drive our dog crazy. He’d run up and down chasing after the boats and one time ran off the end!
My sister, Lynne Crenshaw Tocher came across the Puffin at the Holiday Inn in the Caymans years ago. She was at a cocktail party and was talking to a guy with a blue blazer on and saw some initials on his shirt underneath the blazer that started with the letters PIO. She asked him if by any chance it said Pious Puffin and he said yes that he owned the Pious Puffin. That was probably in the 1970’s.
Another small story. Years after my Father had died and the Pious Puffin was sold, I was standing in line at a movie theatre in Princeton, NJ (where we lived) and a guy in back of me asked if I was Dale Crenshaw and the owner of the Pious Puffin. I said yes, and asked him how he knew. It turned out he was the son of the Captain that my Father had hired for the Pious Puffin, and that he was now a student at Princeton University. I remember the Captain had two sons that crewed the Puffin with him. I wish I could remember their names.