Robert Manry was a copy editor of the Cleveland

Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...

 Plain Dealer who in 1965 sailed from Falmouth, Massachusetts

Falmouth, Massachusetts

Falmouth is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States; Barnstable County is coextensive with Cape Cod. The population was 31,531 at the 2010 census....

, to Falmouth, Cornwall

Falmouth, Cornwall

Falmouth is a town, civil parish and port on the River Fal on the south coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It has a total resident population of 21,635.Falmouth is the terminus of the A39, which begins some 200 miles away in Bath, Somerset....

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, in a tiny 13.5 feet (4.1 m) sailboat (an Old Town "Whitecap" built by the Old Town Canoe Co. of Old Town, Maine

Old Town, Maine

Old Town is a city in Penobscot County, Maine, United States. The population was 7,840 at the 2010 census. The city's developed area is chiefly located on a relatively large island, though its boundaries extend beyond that...

, which he had extensively modified for the voyage) named Tinkerbelle

Tinkerbelle

Tinkerbelle is a sailboat in which 47-year-old newspaperman Robert Manry, a copy editor at the Cleveland Plain Dealer, single-handedly crossed the Atlantic Ocean in 1965. At the time, it was the smallest boat to cross the Atlantic nonstop...

. Beginning on June 1, 1965, and ending on August 17, the voyage lasted 78 days.

At the time, Tinkerbelle was the smallest boat to make a non-stop trip across the Atlantic Ocean

Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...

. Manry later wrote about the voyage and its preparation in his book Tinkerbelle, in which the sailor expressed shock and surprise at the huge crowds and armada of small boats that greeted his arrival in Cornwall.

Manry died February 21, 1971, from a heart attack in Union City, Pennsylvania

Union City, Pennsylvania

Union City is a borough in Erie County, Pennsylvania, southeast of Erie. In the twentieth century, there were three large chair factories, planing and grist mills, a powdered milk plant, and several furniture factories. In 1900, 3,104 people lived here, and in 1910, 3,684 people lived here. The...

.

A small park in Willowick, Ohio

Willowick, Ohio

As of the census of 2000, there were 14,361 people, 6,101 households, and 4,112 families residing in the city. The population density was 5,709.2 people per square mile . There were 6,272 housing units at an average density of 2,493.4 per square mile...

—the town where he lived before his journey—is named after him. Tinkerbelle is on display at The Western Reserve Historical Society in Cleveland, Ohio.

External links

• The Robert Manry Project