Around the world single-handed / The Cruise of the Islander
by Harry Pidgeon
I wouldn’t dare to say that the books about families going cruising are boring but it IS another thing to circle the world alone (‘single handed’). And even more so if the journey starts in the year 1921 and with a self-build wooden boat and without much nautical experience.
Well this book was really amazing. Harry Pidgeon is a fascinating person and his journey alone around the world from 1921-1925 was only the seconed one after Joshua Slocum (in 1909). The journey of Pidgeon from a 21st century viewpoint was a very romantic one. There were no telephone lines, no weather information and when he visited some islands he was only the second or third ship to arrive in a whole year. People were interested in his journey and as he was a hobby photographer, he was doing dia shows for the local people.
The descriptions of the places he visited couldn’t be any more different from today. Fiji was still the paradise island, many islands in the Pacific were still completely without contact to ‘western civilisation’. If one reads about those islands now, it seems that on every second island there’s a naval base of the U.S. and telephone, internet, McDonalds, H&M are everywhere. There was no fish-poisoning as the coral reefs were still intact and in general, life seemed an easier and slower one. This of course is the romantic view – the downside, to have no weather information, no GPS is another story. But I like the book for it’s beautiful image of days long gone past and Harry Pidgeon for sharing his experience in a really unobtrusive way.