Epic Small Boat Voyages

[Gulf Comanche]

Here’s a good read. German Jew escapes Nazis in the mid ‘30s, goes to Japan for several years, then things get bad there so he runs from there to Philippines and gets caught up in the Japanese invasion. He decides to escape via small sailboat to Australia. Read about it on gCaptain forum discussing voyages in small boats. Guy kept a log book and diary and wrote the book after the war. Lots of sailboat details but still a great read. True story, free download.

https://archive.org/details/seawaskind010917mbp/page/n19/mode/2up

 

[Sidney]

Thanks for the link. Great story of survival.

 

[Shrew]

Captain William Bligh

18 men in a 23 foot open launch. He sailed 3,618 nautical miles over 47 days, using a quadrant and a compass, being forced to recall the charts from memory. Doing so in a area with a large number of uncharted reefs.

That is an impressive feat of seamanship in a small boat. The reports were the boat was so loaded, there were only inches of freeboard.