Sailor scribes
Harry Pidgeon
Perhaps it was Harry’s humble wholesomeness and quiet determination that kept him below the radar – or maybe his unlikely background. Born in landlocked Iowa in 1869, he had a hard, Quaker upbringing which gave him a rugged independence. But the rural upbringing meant he never learnt to swim and didn’t see the sea until he arrived in California at the age of 18.
The constant presence of the sea in California got him dreaming about far horizons, but it wasn’t until he purchased the plans for a Seagoer design from Rudder magazine for two dollars that he began to put his dreams into action.
Harry found a rent-free space near the shore of the Los Angeles harbour and, at nearly 50 years old, built the 34foot yawl Islander in 18 months and for less than a thousand dollars. He built her strongly – oak, Oregon pine and Douglas fir – her strength tested by many groundings and brushes with reefs across the Pacific.
Harry was proud of his boat: “The Islander was my first attempt at building a sail-boat, but I don’t suppose there ever was an amateur built craft that so nearly fulfilled the dream of her owner, or that a landsman ever came so near to weaving a magic carpet on the sea.”
After quietly launching Islander, Harry Pidgeon set about learning navigation from books in the San Pedro Library and practised his sailing skills in short coastal hops and voyages to nearby Catalina Island. A test run to Hawaii and back proved
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.
The 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 offer no apology for my own voyage.”
He set out again for a second circumnavigation in 193237 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 off Harry returned to Los Angeles and built a seabird design yawl called Lakemba, but died from pneumonia before he could set off 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 influence – oceans full of fish and birds that have all largely disappeared. Harry never dwelt on being first or second he merely states with typical humility:
“Those days were the freest and happiest of my life.”