Francis Chichester

Sir Francis Chichester KBE (born September 17, 1901 in Barnstaple , Devon , † August 26, 1972 in Plymouth ) was a well-known British circumnavigator , he was also an author and pilot .

Life

Plaque in St Peter's church, Shirwell ( Devon )

In 1960 he was one of the initiators of the first OSTAR transatlantic regatta . He was diagnosed with cancer in the late 1950s, doctors gave him a few more months. Despite his illness, he still took in 1966 with the ketch Gipsy Moth IV one -handed - circumnavigation . He started on August 27, 1966 in Plymouth in his self-designed boat and returned after nine months and one day on May 28, 1967. He managed the circumnavigation with just one stop in Sydney . He is considered the last "sea hero" of Great Britain. In London a path was named after him, the "Francis-Chichester-Way".

Tower Bridge was ceremonially opened on his return home . Chichester was defeated for this trip by Elizabeth II to Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire . The sword used for this originally belonged to the navigator Sir Francis Drake , the first British man to sail around the world. A postage stamp was issued in Great Britain in 1967 showing Chichester on the "Gipsy Moth IV".

The first one-handed circumnavigation of the world was carried out by Joshua Slocum in the 19th century, but it took him three years and many stops. His yacht was called Spray .

Chichester was the father of Conservative British MEP Giles Chichester .

Works

• Solo to Sydney (1931)
• Alone Across the Atlantic (1961)
• The Lonely Sea and the Sky (1964)
• Gipsy Moth Circles the World (1967)

Web links

• Literature by and about Francis Chichester in the catalog of the German National Library
• First transatlantic regatta in 1960
• 1967 BBC report
• Gipsy Moth Circles the World on The Open Critic