VOYAGE IN TINY CRAFT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23146, 19 September 1938, Page 8

VOYAGE IN TINY CRAFT

.CAPTAIN ORSBORNE'S PLAN CROSSING NORTH ATLANTIC [from a special correspondent] LONDON, August 29 Captain George Orsborne, whose voyage in the trawler Girl Pat attracted world-wide attention, is planning another adventure, even more thrilling ahd daring than his last. In a tiny sailing craft, specially equipped to his specifications, he proposes to sail alone from London to New York.

One thing alone is holding him up. That is the sum of £3OO required to meet the demands of his insurers, and other expenses, before they will permit him to set sail. Captain Orsborne believes that he can make this crossing without any navigating instruments except a compass, and by that sixth sense developed by crack skippers in the Iceland and White Sea fisheries.

Captain Orsborne has provisioned his craft for 60 days, and proposes to make south to Finisterre, across the Atlantic from there, and then to follow the coast north from the region of Cape Hatteras, to New York. A crossing of the North Atlantic single-handed in'a boat of this size has never before been attempted. Tho Little Elizabeth. is the name which Captain Orsborne has given to the craft. Only 19ft. on the waterline, it weighs a mere four tons. It is technically described as a "gaff-cutter" and is capable of sailing at six knots. It has no mechanical means of propulsion. /

ENGLISH GIRL'S THRILL

BY YAWL TO BERMUDA [from a special correspondent] LONDON, August 29 A 23-year-old English girl and her father have just succeeded in crossing tho Atlantic in a small boat. The girl is Marguerite Graham, of Stawell, Somerset, and the voyage was the biggest thrill of her life. Commander 11. Graham and his daughter have reached Bermuda in their 11-ton yawl, Caplin, in which they set sail alone from Bridgwater in April. Marguerite was mate, first-class seaman, and ship's cook as well. The vessel averaged 90 miles a day with the help of its 8 horse-power motor, and made Bermuda, from Madeira, in 31 days.

This is the second time that Commander Graham has crossed the Atlantic in a small boat, and the description he gave of his first trip so thrilled his daughter that she begged to be taken on his nest one.