Einstein's Beloved Sailboat

Courtesy Einstein Papers Project

When Albert Einstein turned 50 on March 14, 1929, he received a flood of congratulatory wishes. Many of the letters pertained to a birthday present Einstein cherished the most: a single-cabin sailboat, named Tümmler, which means porpoise in German.

The Einstein Papers Project at Caltech has released the 16th volume of its massive scholarly collection of the famed physicist's scientific and nonscientific writings and correspondence, in which these documents appear. The volume covers the period from June 1927 to May 1929 and contains 1,600 letters by and to Einstein, many more than contained in previous volumes.

Aside from enjoying his sailboat, Einstein had one great wish for his milestone birthday, according to Diana Kormos-Buchwald, Caltech’s Robert M. Abbey Professor of History and director of the Einstein Papers Project: “He wanted to avoid the press, the visitors, the fanfare, and the tributes. He escaped Berlin for the countryside,” she says.

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