Boating New Zealand – April 2018

112 Boating New Zealand

LEFT Despite her being

Harry’s debut build, Islander

took him safely to exotic

destinations.

BELOW Hewing the bones

of the yacht from oak,

Oregon and Douglas fir.

her ready, and in November 1921 he set out on what would be

a four-year, 27,000-nautical-mile solo circumnavigation.

Harry Pidgeon completed his circumnavigation in 1925,

received the Cruising Club of America’s third Blue Water

Medal and set about writing his one and only book – Around

the World Single-Handed – encouraged by an article he

published in National Geographic magazine.

Te book is full of the gentle wonder of a man exploring the

world well ahead of his time. It is perhaps in the concluding

chapter that Harry best sums it all up:

“My voyage was not taken for the joy of sailing alone. It

was my way of seeing some interesting parts of the world...

I avoided adventure as much as possible. Just the same, any

landsman who builds his own vessel and sails it alone around

the world will meet with some adventures, so I shall ofer no

apology for my own voyage.”

He set out again for a second circumnavigation in 1932-

37 returning in time for WWII and marriage. In 1947 he and

his bride Margaret set sail on a third circumnavigation but

while in Vanuatu, Islander was driven ashore and wrecked in

a late season cyclone. Not to be put of Harry returned to Los

Angeles and built a seabird design yawl called Lakemba, but

died from pneumonia before he could set of again.

Harry was more than just a sailor. His story is told through

the eyes of a true traveller. He researched, anticipated and

savoured every stop he made as if it were a dream come true.

Unusually for his time he seemed able to accept all races

and creeds as he found them and had the curiosity and

intellect to understand and record them in both word and

image. His positivity and humility seemed infectious and the

locals in every port he visited showered him in kindness.

Harry cruised before it became a popular pursuit, before

self-steering, Dacron sails or radios. More often than not

he had no detailed charts of his landfalls but with good

seamanship and a bit of luck he survived.

He sailed across oceans bereft of human infuence – oceans

full of fsh and birds that have all largely disappeared. Harry

never dwelt on being frst or second he merely states with

typical humility:

“Tose days were the freest and happiest of my life.” BNZ