Howard Blackburn

[Guest]

A nephew of mine, noting my new interest in Sailing For the Digitally Challenged and seeking to cheer me up, has drawn my attention the the case of Howard Blackburn. This from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Blackburn

 

Howard Blackburn was born in Nova Scotia in 1859. At the age of 18, he moved south to Massachusetts, seeking work as a fisherman, and became part of the Gloucester, Massachusetts fishing community.

 

Blackburn first rose to fame in 1883. While he was fishing on the schooner Grace L. Fears, a sudden winter storm caught him and a dorymate unprepared while they were in their banks dory, leaving them separated from the schooner. Blackburn began to row for shore, despite the loss of his mittens; he knew his hands would freeze, so he kept them in the hooked position that would allow him to row. He tried to save one hand with a sock and thus worsened his condition by freezing his toes and yet not being able to save his fingers. The crewmate gave up and laid down in the dory and died on the second day.

 

After five days with virtually no food, water, or sleep, he made it to shore in Newfoundland; but his companion had died during the journey. Blackburn's hands were treated for frostbite, but could not be saved; he lost all his fingers, and many of his toes, and both thumbs to the first joint.

 

Blackburn returned to Gloucester a hero, and with the help of the town, managed to establish a successful saloon. Not content with this, he organised an expedition to the Klondike to join the gold rush; rather than go overland, he and his group sailed there, via Cape Horn. Howard, after a disagreement with his partners left the group in San Francisco after a short trip to Portland, Oregon to buy lumber to help finance the trip, and returned home never having panned for gold.

 

After the quest for gold failed, Blackburn turned his attention to a new challenge — to sail single-handed across the Atlantic Ocean. This had been done before, by Alfred "Centennial" Johnson in 1876, and Joshua Slocum had completed a single-handed circumnavigation in 1898; but for a man with no fingers to undertake such a voyage would be quite an accomplishment. He sailed from Gloucester in 1899, in the modified Gloucester Fishing Sloop, Great Western, and reached England after 62 days at sea.

 

Returning to Gloucester, Blackburn continued to prosper as a businessman; but he still hankered for adventure. In 1901, he sailed to Portugal in the twenty-five-foot Gloucester Fishing sloop Great Republic, making the trip in 39 days. In 1903 he again set out alone, this time in the sailing dory America, but was defeated by bad weather. Blackburn also circumnavigated the Eastern United States by going down the Mississippi River and back up the Eastern Seaboard. "Great Republic" may be seen at the Cape Ann Museum, in Gloucester.

 

Blackburn died in 1932; his funeral was attended by many of the people of Gloucester. He was buried in the Fishermen’s Rest section of Beechgrove Cemetery.

[Fogg 427]

I was once tied up at Yarmouth (on my way to Kings Head!) and a boat came alongside me, guy at helm, dog walking around the deck, nothing unsual expect guy looked a bit short.

 

He had no legs. When onboard he swung himself around the boat on his arms, amazingly quickly. But he had prosthetics for walking ashore.

 

He was so relaxed as he came alongside in his trad wooden boat. Looked the part too, beard, pipe, sailor's cap etc.

 

He made it ashore fine - even negotiated the vertical ladders up the harbour wall - but had a funny story. When I woke up the next morning he had clothes and money pegged out on the rails, drying. He was coming back to the boat and the dog got too enthusiastic to jump aboard the boat and leapt from the dinghy too early - causing him to fall out.

 

So there he was, in the water, still smoking his pipe, swimming after his dinghy and with the dog swimming back to the boat. Had all the ingredients for a recipe for disaster and I was only a few feet away when it happened and didn't hear a thing - he didn't call for help though, just quietly got himself, his dog (a yellow lab) and dinghy back to his boat and climbed aboard.

 

He blamed it on the dog and a few too many beers. And being literally legless! We had a right old laugh as he told me that story.

[Guest]

The late Laurence Nathan (commemorated in the Teddy Bear outside the RNZYS) lost both legs during the WW2.

 

He didn't bother with his prosthetic legs on board Kahurangi but moved himself around the ship in the manner AC describes. Kahurangi had a highly varnished cabin top which Laurence skated around on his backside to give himself the best position to observe proceedings.

[smithy09 50]

How about this guy? Alan Kempster. Bike racer in Aus. Fairly quick too from all reports...