With the Johnsons, Yankee sailed the Caribbean and made four global circumnavigations with amateur crews on a share-expense basis.

It departed Gloucester on 2 November 1947 and returned on 1 May 1949, stopping at over one hundred mostly remote ports and islands, but also in Honolulu, Singapore, and Cape Town for the receipt of large shipments of canned food from S. S. Pierce in Boston.

These cruises were made on a three-year cycle, so that between each two, Yankee was on the northeast coast of America for two summers and one winter.

Burke used the Yankee and the schooner Polynesia, on 10- to 14-day Windjammer Cruises in the Bahamas, hiring on amateur sailors.

After stopping at San Salvador and Jamaica, and passing through the Panama Canal, the Yankee proceeded to the Galapagos Islands.

Search parties combed the island for several days to no avail and the Ecuadoran navy was eventually called out to investigate.

[3] Captain Derek Lumbers and crew were eventually returned to the Yankee and they quickly set sail for French Polynesia on 8 May, after failing to pay a $400 levy placed on the ship by the local police.

[4] A court of inquiry regarding the fate of the Yankee was held the following day, with acknowledgments by several passengers that the entire cruise had been under-funded and the ship poorly-maintained.