Critical Essays on Jonathan Swift Book

Francis (later Sir Francis) Chichester is renowned, in the UK at least, as a single-handed sailor, most notably for his single-handed circumnavigation in 1968. He was 65 years old at the time. I saw this book by chance on the shelf of the local public library and was initially surprised that the cover bore a picture of a seaplane as well as a sail-boat.

Long before his sailing exploits Chichester had flown single-handed from Britain to Australia and made the first solo east-west flight from New Zealand to Australia. I think we are now so accustomed to air travel that we perhaps forget how rapidly the technology of flight developed in the first half of the twentieth century. Both of these flights of Chichester’s were carried out in the late 1920s, early 1930s at the time when solo flying was extremely hazardous.

Many of his exploits reminded me of reading Joshua Slokum’s book of his circumnavigation of the globe. When Slokum’s boat was wrecked in a storm he simply set to on the beach and built another one. Chichester did much the same when, on the remote Lord Howe Island, his seaplane was wrecked in a storm; with the help of islanders—many of whom had never seen an airplane before—he rebuilt it and flew on. This kind of self-reliance is a rare thing now when we are so used to getting what we want/need with little more effort than picking it off the supermarket shelf.

Judged by purely literary standards, Chichester was not a good writer; there were many passages that I had to read two or three times to make proper sense of them, but if you read this book, it will be for the story not the literary merit.

Also, he makes no concession to the uninformed when explaining his navigation techniques for example. This self-derived method involved taking complex sextant readings and making complex calculations to work out his position and his drift from his intended course, and all whilst flying the aircraft—he remarks on balancing the control stick with his elbow, for example, whilst taking the sextant readings. He explains this in some detail even including a reproduction of his actual chart used in the flight from New Zealand. It is essential to the understanding of the significance of what he was undertaking although it made absolutely no sense to me whatsoever.

The latter third or so of the book deals with his first sailing exploits, especially his solo transatlantic crossings. Overall, an interesting if not a thrilling read. Probably a 2.5 star rating for me.