Modern Era Voyaging

The Kon-Tiki Expedition – Thor Heyerdahl (With Original Photograph of the Raft)

Well certainly not a rare book, probably the biggest selling modern maritime adventure book. But a very good copy.

A 1959 edition by which time it had already run to 23 impressions. Octavo, 235 pages with eighty odd photographic images.

Thor Heyerdahl set off on the most amazing raft voyage with five companions determined to prove his migration theories. This account, praised by Somerset Maugham as “an incredible adventure which happens to be true. It would be a very dull reader who did not admire and envy the courage of the six men who took part in it”. Very good copy.

We also have what appears to be an original photograph of the raft on its way … the camera work is rather shaky so clearly taken from another vessel.

Leaving Callao in Peru for Tahiti, they almost made it running aground on the Raroia Reef were the raft was smashed to smithereens.

Kon-Tiki nice copy with photograph.

$30.00

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Last Voyage – Ann Davison – First edition 1951

First edition of Ann Davison’s autobiographical account which ends in the most dramatic shipwreck and the loss of her husband.

An incredible individual, after all of this, she became the first woman to single-handedly sail across the Atlantic.

Published by Peter Davis, London, 1951. Octavo, 248 pages, two photographs of Ann and Frank … it was not that sort of adventure. Very good condition.

The Last Voyage begins with her earlier life as an aviator in the 1930’s delivering mail around the UK. She married Frank Davison a fellow aviator when they both worked at the Hooten airfield near Liverpool. They has a long held ambition for sailing and bought a run-down 70 foot ketch “Reliance”. Doing it up sent them broke and before the work was finished they sailed to avoid their creditors. They encountered incredible storms in the Channel and the Irish Sea … they foundered on the Portland Bill. Taking to their cork life raft they battled to survive and Frank died out of pure exhaustion ..

Now scarce and one of the most personal accounts we have read.

$35.00

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Innocent Aboard – Chay and Maureen Blyth – First Edition 1970

First edition published by the Nautical Publishing Company 1970. Octavo, 196 pages all in very good condition.

Chay Blyth’s first serious sailing expedition, setting off from England he was soon lost … and then got his bearings and sea legs. On south he sailed. Through the Canaries, Cape Verde Islands and to the far south and Tristan da Cunha before South Africa.

His boat was a small family cruiser, so his aspiration to cross and make the Horn had to be curtailed. Confident, he cabled his wife to join him for the return voyage … which she did.

His story won over Sir Alec Rose who provided a very supportive foreword.

Chay Blyth – first voyage and quite an adventure

$25.00

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A White Boat from England – George Millar 1951

A first edition published by Heinemann, London in 1951. Octavo, 308 pages nicely illustrated and with several maps.

George Millar had already sailed the Mediterranean in the thirty-ton ketch Truant. Here in a new vessel, a sixteen-ton sloop Serica they take a leisurely sail down and around the coast of Portugal and Spain.

What might seem like an easy passage turns into a challenge; a near miss and then run down by a fishing boat. Later illness and injury puts them in danger, before coming across Riviera smugglers and the opportunity to save another man’s life of Cap Ferrat.

It’s not all easy going in the Mediterranean … but there are some luxuries for sure.

$25.00

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The Sea Lark – Thomas Helm – First Edition 1957

A first edition published by George Harrap, London in 1957. Octavo, 222 pages, with end paper maps and illustrations from photographs taken during the voyages. Still has the scarce dust jacket albeit a bit chipped and repaired to top of spine. Otherwise a pretty good clean copy.

Helm, ex US navy, set off with his mate, Ed Booth into the Caribbean and Central America in the 47 foot schooner Sea Lark. Adventures ensue and not just at sea hence the image of a jaguar on a sailing book.

Written in a an usual story telling style … makes it quiet a treat.

Caribbean sailing Adventures with variety

$25.00

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The Penance Way – The Mystery of Puffin’s Atlantic Voyage – Merton Naydler

Published by Hutchinson, London a first edition 1968.

Octavo, 252 pages with end paper charts, photographic illustrations and diagrams. Nicely put together and a very good copy.

David Johnstone and John Hore lost their lives mid-Atlantic in 1966. The fifteen-foot Puffin was found upturned. Extraordinarily, Johnstone had left behind a 35,000-word journal … upon which this book is primarily written.

Courage and tenacity documented to the very end.

$25.00

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The Kon-Tiki Expedition – Thor Heyerdahl (With Original Photograph of the Raft)

Last Voyage – Ann Davison – First edition 1951

Innocent Aboard – Chay and Maureen Blyth – First Edition 1970

A White Boat from England – George Millar 1951

The Sea Lark – Thomas Helm – First Edition 1957

The Penance Way – The Mystery of Puffin’s Atlantic Voyage – Merton Naydler

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