The saga of John
BACK in the mid-1960s, Southport’s 6ft 4in seafaring adventurer, John Riding, successfully completed an incredible solo worldrecord by crossing the Atlantic in his home-made boat – a 144in vessel called the Sea Egg.
Surviving on a main diet of tinned meat, tinned porridge and the odd sausage, he found himself in the Guinness Book of Records for his one-man transatlantic voyage in the then smallest craft ever to do so.
Sadly, nine years later, in 1973, John and his trusty Sea Egg met an unfortunate end, when the experienced sailor, halfway through a circumnavigation, disappeared somewhere in the notorious Tasman Sea – between New Zealand and Australia – and the epic seafarer was never seen again.
Over the next two weeks we will relate the Sandgrounder’s amazing story, featuring his record-breaking transatlantic trip in what was, at that time, the smallest ever vessel to ever make such an ambitious crossing, fulfilling John Riding’s lifetime dream.
Attempts to set sailing records by crossing the Atlantic had been nothing new, but the exploits of this one man stands out due to his mere 12ft long sloop he named “SjÖ Ag” meaning Sea Egg in Norwegian.
John designed his famous boat, but had it built in La Rochelle where, at the time, he was working on and looking after a friend’s boat.
Then, in July 1964, the
24 – year-old Birkdale resident embarked from Plymouth aboard his minute ocean-going craft, only dropping anchor in Bermuda to complete an incredible journey.
Due to his achievements John Riding certainly fits into the Southport’s Greatest category – but little is known about him, so History Hunters took time out to discover just who he was.
It transpired that John’s family history was not that straight forward – but Sue knows exactly what she is doing and managed to unravel the bones of the family tree, in just a couple of days.
The lone sailor was a bachelor in the Swinging ’60s, happy making his home with his mother and stepfather, in Birkdale’s prestigious Weld Road – although he had lived in several other parts of Southport before then, including Chester Avenue and possibly Beach Priory Gardens.
His real father proved somewhat elusive in our quick research, and it turns out that our heroic seafarer was actually born in Warrington, in the last quarter of 1939, as John Christopher Connolly, his father being William R Connolly (born June 6 1904), and his mother Eleanor Elizabeth née Short (born July 7 1911), who had married in April 1936, in Prescot.
John just misses out being recorded in the 1939 Register, when his mother is given as a “Domestic” – but his father’s occupation is illegible; her mother, confusingly also called Eleanor E Short (born May 24 1882) is also living with them, in Warrington.
William, died in July 1945, in the Newton area, and his widow, Eleanor remarried on March 18 1946, in Newton, to Samuel Allan Riding, and the three of them move to 17 Wennington Road, certainly in 1951, and later to 24 Chester Avenue, Southport, some time afterwards, as this address is given when Samuel died at the Southport Infirmary 12 years later, on March 1 1958. Probate is given to one Douglas Riding, a doctor of medicine, and Leonard Carruthers Riding, a master builder, who inherited £2,309 14s 5d – but there is no mention of Eleanor.
In the 1940s John attended All Saint’s School, in Wennington Road (now Poulton Court sheltered accommodation) and one former classmate, Eric Rimmer, told us John enjoyed the art classes, always drawing comic-book style characters, like Superman and Batman, complete with speech clouds with “Pow,” “Wham” and stars when punches were landed. Eric also said the future worldseeking seaman was always the adventurous type.
John then passed the grade to attend King George V School (KGV), Scarisbrick New Road, where his sporting interests included swimming, cricket, rugby, golf and skiing, and where – former Southport Visiter journalist Stuart Isenberg tells us – he became head boy.
John also went to Southport Technical College, but for what subjects is not known – perhaps art?
He is known to have holidayed in Sweden in the summer of 1958, and possibly in 1959 as well.
On leaving school and college John went to sea as a Royal
Navy Cadet Officer, but was forced to leave due to illhealth.
He found it difficult settling down into a shore job, though and in 1961, he sailed off on a two-man voyage in a 26ft craft called Fairey Atalanta, with the dream of circumnavigation. After a series of mishaps and shortage of funds he returned to Southport from his stay in the Canaries.
In 1962 he became skipper of a 55ft long ketch called TaiMo-Shan, and while he was based in La Rochelle, he designed and had built his tiny Sea Egg – or rather SjÖ Ag to give her proper name – and in 1964 sailed her to England, before setting off for the big one, across the mighty Atlantic Ocean.
Although “the saucy little egg” (as the Liverpool ECHO described her) was the smallest craft ever to take on the Atlantic, she had been barred from entering the prestigious, annual, transatlantic yacht race the previous year, due to being under-sized, so John dearly wanted to prove the judges wrong – and succeeded.
Despite being a man-mountain weighing 16st, during his trans-Atlantic voyage he slept, cooked and lived in an area only the size of a basic bedroom wardrobe and, getting into his cockpit cabin was like crawling underneath a bed – but he became a hero to many, with admirers and fans all around the world.
In April 1961 we find Eleanor marrying for the third time, in Chorley, to Stephen Goulding, although it appears Stephen (who might have worked underground at a colliery) had been living at 45 Albert Road, Southport, in 1959, by 1963 he is recorded in the telephone directory as having moved into his wife’s home at 24 Chester Avenue. Elizabeth and Stephen Goulding are mentioned in newspaper reports about John certainly between February 1966 and July 1973, as living in Birkdale.
John’s mother died five years after he had been officially lost at sea, on November 22 1978, aged 67, and the probate gives her address as “Buckingham”, 24 Weld Road, Birkdale, leaving £1,628.