The second man to solo circumnavigate under sail was Harry Pidgeon. He built his boat on the beach in San Pedro, Ca. from scaled up plans from Rudder Magazine for the Sea Bird Yawl. Islander was 34 feet and gaff rigged. His book is not quite the read as Slocum's but still most interesting. "Around the World Single-Handed: The Cruise of the "Islander" His first voyage was 1921 to 1925. He did a second circumnavigation from 1932 to 1937. Islander was next to my dad's boat right after WWII, in San Pedro and Mr Pidgeon was gracious enough to invite a scrawny kid who had a lot of questions aboard Island many times. I still remember sitting in the cabin--and by modern standards that boat was very primitive--and asking questions. Mr. Pidgeon was also a professional photographer, so many times my questions were answered with photographs as well as the talks. He had no prior sailing experience; both the construction and his sailing/navigation knowledge was from books borrowed from the library.
He didn't marry until he was 72 years old. His third voyage, with his wife and a crew member aboard ended with the loss of Islander in the New Hebrides in 1948.
Another early sailor, John Caldwell, had his boat, Adios, next to my dad's boat a few years later. John wrote "Desperate Voyage" about his trip from Panama to Australia (the boat was lost at Fiji) right after WW II in a 20' cutter "Pagan" he bought. As Pidgeon, he had no sailing experience (but was a merchant seaman) and learned all from library books. He built a Tahiti Ketch in Australia. His wife sailed with him from Australia to San Pedro. They started on a circumnavigation, but stopped short at Palm Island in the Grenadines, which they developed into a successful resort.
Wonderful mentors for a young man! I spent a few days with John Caldwell in 1985 at Palm Island, stopping there on our way back from cruising Europe.
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