Harry Pidgeon's “Around the World Single-Handed”
Those of you who follow the comments section on SWS may have noticed the recent contributions of Graham Cox. Graham has lived amogst the small boat cruising fraternity for over 50 years. When he signed up, his rather understated bio, read…
I learned to sail as a teenager, in the late 1960s, on a double-planked Alan Buchanan 28ft sloop, a Clyde six-tonner. I currently own a Cavalier 32, originally called Cavalier 1, built by John Partridge and Guy Keon, founders of Cavalier Yachts Australia, and sailed by them in the 1974 Sydney Hobart race. I sailed from Nelson NZ to Tahiti in 1980 aboard Ishmael, an 18m timber gaff schooner. Crossed the Coral Sea in 1976 on David Lewis' Ice Bird, of Antarctic fame. Between 1996 and 2019, I cruised solo between Sydney and Cairns aboard Arion, a Tom Thumb 24. Converted it to junk rig in 2011. My heart still lies with traditional timber yachts
So when he sent us this short book review, I was delighted to share. Graham is currently working on a memoire, so keep an eye out!
I own a special copy of Harry Pidgeon's “Around the World Single-Handed” It is a unique book, printed in 1934, maybe a first edition, certainly a second, and it is autographed by the author. Plus it contains memorabilia from Pidgeon's voyage, including newspaper clippings from Los Angeles newspapers and a personalised Christmas card from Harry to the first owner of the book, who was a friend of his. But even if you have to buy a new copy, this book is worth reading. Harry Pidgeon was a gracious, open-minded person, and a brilliant photographer. His photos of people and places he visited are now part of a highly-regarded ethnographic collection.
Harry was also a very laid-back sailor, who became the first person to complete a second singlehanded circumnavigation. The sea, he said, was a great blue highway that could take him and Islander anywhere they wanted to go. He was a minimalist who ate sparingly, and he lived to a ripe old age, completing his second circumnavigation at the age of 72. He married an old friend, Margaret, that year, saying that he was ripe enough now to give it a try. What kept him going for so long, I suspect, was that he was full of joy, and that perspective shines through the pages of his book. He was a man ahead of his time.
It is interesting to compare Slocum to Pidgeon, and their boats. Slocum was the hard-bitten sea captain who'd come up through the hawsepipe, and who had fallen on hard times. His voyage was a way of fighting back, and he did a magnificent job of it. Spray was rebuilt with whatever materials he could find, and ten years after his circumnavigation, both man and boat were in poor shape, disappearing at sea in 1909. Harry Pidgeon seemed to breeze through life, guided by his sunny disposition. He built Islander on a beach in Los Angeles Harbour, mostly alone, and the boat was still sound when it was wrecked in a cyclone in the South Pacific Ocean in 1947. He then went back to California and built a 26' version, the Seabird design, launched when he was 82, on which he lived happily until his death a few years later. Like Slocum, he could turn his hand to anything, and they were both excellent timber shipwrights and brilliant raconteurs. Fate seems to have handed them different destinies, but they will always be regarded as the pre-eminent singlehanded sailors of all time.
Graham Cox.
