The boat was built in 1921 in Denmark as the Wandia and sailed for its owner, Captain Petersen, for 30 years in the Baltic Sea hauling cargo. After a few years as a commercial fishing vessel based in Iceland, it was purchased and taken to Central America as a general cargo ship. Wandia was scheduled to take part in the inaugural Operation Sail procession in New York Harbor in July 1964, sailing under a Panamanian flag. Wandia was unsuccessful hauling cargo in Central America, and it was purchased by R. Tucker Thompson in 1964 after an inspection in Acapulco. It was delivered to San Diego later that year. After advertising its availability, Thompson sold the ship to the Mirisch Company, which was filming Hawaii. Thompson held an option to be the first to repurchase the ship after filming was completed. Under Mirisch, it was fitted with square rigging to modify its appearance as a 19th-century whaling ship in San Pedro for scenes in the 1966 filmHawaii. The refit was performed under the supervision of noted vintage sailing ship experts Alan Villiers, Ken Reynard, Karl Kortum, and Bill Bartz, who then sailed the ship to Hawaii. Upon its arrival, it was renamed Carthaginian for the eponymous ship in the 1959 novel Hawaii by James A. Michener, on which the 1966 film was based. After filming was complete in November 1965, Thompson re-purchased Carthaginian and sailed it back to California, calling in Lahaina along the way. Larry Windley, director of the non-profit "Lahaina Restoration Foundation", convinced its members to purchase the ship as a tourist attraction hailing back to Lahaina's time as a whaling port. When the Carthaginan made port in Hilo, LRF representatives met the ship and made Thompson an offer to purchase it. Following the brief return voyage to California, Carthaginian sailed from San Diego on August 4, 1966, and returned to Lahaina in January 1967, where it was converted into a whaling ship museum and tourist attraction with Thompson serving as Captain and Curator. Thompson left in 1968, and LRF declared it would be maintained as a working vessel, making an annual trip to dry dock on Oahu under a volunteer crew. Carthaginian was destroyed after it ran aground on the Lahaina Reef on Easter Sunday 1973 while sailing to dry dock at Oahu, and another ex-Baltic Sea cargo schooner, later renamed Carthaginian II, was acquired to replace it later in 1973.
