Western Mariner – August 2019

CANADA’S COMMERCIAL MARINE MAGAZINE AUGUST 2019 WESTERNMARINER.COM 45

W

idely acclaimed as one of the greatest small

craft sailors of all time, Capt. John Voss

stands out as a BC mariner of international

stature. He was a pioneer of blue water chal-

lenge cruising under sail, which is enthusi-

astically pursued worldwide today.

Almost 120 years ago, two adventurers from Victoria sat in

the Garrick’s Head pub in Victoria and planned a global cir-

cumnavigation voyage under sail. Voss and Norman Luxton,

a young newspaper man, set out on a voyage that they hoped

would make them famous and rich as “reality stars” of their

day. They figured that Voss would get them safely around and

Luxton would publicize the voyage and make them rich.

Capt. Voss, a master mariner, was a tough and colourful

waterfront character who settled onto Vancouver Island

after a career at sea under sail. Like some of his colleagues,

he did business at the shady end of the integrity spectrum.

He ran a hotel in Chemainus where if you weren’t careful

you might end up “crimped” aboard a ship sailing to the

Orient. He was publicly believed to have run drugs across

the border into San Francisco, where he was working with

corrupt customs officials. At the time of the voyage he

owned a hotel and restaurant in Victoria.

Luxton was running a small failing newspaper and

dreaming of adventure. Both Luxton and Voss had read

Joshua Slocum’s runaway best-seller Sailing Alone Around

the World, and figured they could “out-Slocum Slocum”.

From a mighty cedar

Voss had undoubtedly observed brave and skilful First

Nations mariners handling dugout canoes on the open

ocean. He admired the way the canoes handled rough sea

conditions, with designs refined over thousands of years

of experience. He’d seen some of these modified by their

owners with a sail, and he figured that they had the poten-

tial for long voyages and that a canoe modified for ocean

cruising could safely circumnavigate the globe. He intend-

ed to sail westward around the world.

Captain John Voss and the tilikum

The trailblazing voyage of BC’s most famous yacht

By John MacFarlane

The tilikum in Oak Bay on the day before its May 21, 1901 departure.

COURTESY MARITIME MUSEUM OF BC COLLECTION