William Willis (traveller)
Encyclopedia
William Willis was an American sailor and writer who is famous due to his solo rafting expeditions across oceans. Willis became a sailor at 15, leaving his home in Hamburg to sail around Cape Horn
.
A few days after New Years, 1938 (Page 5, "Damned and Damned Again") Willis rented a room from a woman named Madame Carnot. Her brother, Bernard Carnot, had been sent to Devil's Island for a murder he did not commit, and out of compassion and a sense of adventure Willis set out to Devil's Island to effect Bernard Carnot's escape, which he eventually accomplished.
During his first solo expedition in 1954 from South America to American Samoa
, he sailed 6,700 miles — 2,200 miles farther than did Thor Heyerdahl
on Kon-Tiki
. His raft was named "Seven Little Sisters" and was crewed by himself, his parrot, and cat. Willis was age 61 at the time of this voyage.
In a second great voyage ten years later, he rafted 11,000 miles from South America to Australia.
At age 74, Willis made his third attempt at a solo crossing of the North Atlantic in a small sailboat. Willis left Montauk Point, Long Island on May 2, 1968 in his boat "Little One". On September 24, 1968 the crew of the Soviet Latvian trawler Yantarny sighted his half-submerged boat nearly four hundred miles west of the Irish coast. No one was found on board. Willis' log was found on the boat, with its last entry dated July 21, 1968.
Novelist T. R. Pearson
wrote the book Seaworthy: Adrift with William Willis in the Golden Age of Rafting (2006), summarizing Willis's adventures.
Cape Horn
Cape Horn is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island...
.
A few days after New Years, 1938 (Page 5, "Damned and Damned Again") Willis rented a room from a woman named Madame Carnot. Her brother, Bernard Carnot, had been sent to Devil's Island for a murder he did not commit, and out of compassion and a sense of adventure Willis set out to Devil's Island to effect Bernard Carnot's escape, which he eventually accomplished.
During his first solo expedition in 1954 from South America to American Samoa
American Samoa
American Samoa is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of the sovereign state of Samoa...
, he sailed 6,700 miles — 2,200 miles farther than did Thor Heyerdahl
Thor Heyerdahl
Thor Heyerdahl was a Norwegian ethnographer and adventurer with a background in zoology and geography. He became notable for his Kon-Tiki expedition, in which he sailed by raft from South America to the Tuamotu Islands...
on Kon-Tiki
Kon-Tiki
Kon-Tiki was the raft used by Norwegian explorer and writer Thor Heyerdahl in his 1947 expedition across the Pacific Ocean from South America to the Polynesian islands. It was named after the Inca sun god, Viracocha, for whom "Kon-Tiki" was said to be an old name...
. His raft was named "Seven Little Sisters" and was crewed by himself, his parrot, and cat. Willis was age 61 at the time of this voyage.
In a second great voyage ten years later, he rafted 11,000 miles from South America to Australia.
At age 74, Willis made his third attempt at a solo crossing of the North Atlantic in a small sailboat. Willis left Montauk Point, Long Island on May 2, 1968 in his boat "Little One". On September 24, 1968 the crew of the Soviet Latvian trawler Yantarny sighted his half-submerged boat nearly four hundred miles west of the Irish coast. No one was found on board. Willis' log was found on the boat, with its last entry dated July 21, 1968.
Novelist T. R. Pearson
T. R. Pearson
-Biography:Pearson was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He was a student at North Carolina State University, where he gained a B.A. and M.A. in English. He went on to teach at Peace College in Raleigh, North Carolina. He started work on a Ph.D...
wrote the book Seaworthy: Adrift with William Willis in the Golden Age of Rafting (2006), summarizing Willis's adventures.