Seaworthy

Adrift with William Willis in the Golden Age of Rafting

Nonfiction, Travel, Adventure & Literary Travel, History, Americas, United States, 20th Century, Biography & Memoir
Cover of the book Seaworthy by T. R. Pearson, The Crown Publishing Group
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: T. R. Pearson ISBN: 9780307394316
Publisher: The Crown Publishing Group Publication: June 26, 2007
Imprint: Crown Forum Language: English
Author: T. R. Pearson
ISBN: 9780307394316
Publisher: The Crown Publishing Group
Publication: June 26, 2007
Imprint: Crown Forum
Language: English

Welcome to the daring, thrilling, and downright strange adventures of William Willis, one of the world’s original extreme sportsmen. Driven by an unfettered appetite for personal challenge and a yen for the path of most resistance, Willis mounted a single-handed and wholly unlikely rescue in the jungles of French Guiana and then twice crossed the broad Pacific on rafts of his own design, with only housecats and a parrot for companionship. His first voyage, atop a ten-ton balsa monstrosity, was undertaken in 1954 when Willis was sixty. His second raft, having crossed eleven thousand miles from Peru, found the north shore of Australia shortly after Willis’s seventieth birthday. A marvel of vigor and fitness, William Willis was a connoisseur of ordeal, all but orchestrating short rations, ship-wreck conditions, and crushing solitude on his trans-Pacific voyages.

He’d been inspired by Kon-Tiki, Thor Heyerdahl’s bid to prove that a primitive raft could negotiate the open ocean. Willis’s trips confirmed that a primitive man could as well. Willis survived on rye flour and seawater, sang to keep his spirits up, communicated with his wife via telepathy, suffered from bouts of temporary blindness, and eased the intermittent pain of a double hernia by looping a halyard around his ankles and dangling upside-down from his mast.

Rich with vivid detail and wry humor, Seaworthy is the story of a sailor you’ve probably never heard of but need to know. In an age when countless rafts were adrift on the waters of the world, their crews out to shore up one theory of ethno-migration or tear down another, Willis’s challenges remained refreshingly personal. His methods were eccentric, his accomplishments little short of remarkable. Don’t miss the chance to meet this singular monk of the sea.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Welcome to the daring, thrilling, and downright strange adventures of William Willis, one of the world’s original extreme sportsmen. Driven by an unfettered appetite for personal challenge and a yen for the path of most resistance, Willis mounted a single-handed and wholly unlikely rescue in the jungles of French Guiana and then twice crossed the broad Pacific on rafts of his own design, with only housecats and a parrot for companionship. His first voyage, atop a ten-ton balsa monstrosity, was undertaken in 1954 when Willis was sixty. His second raft, having crossed eleven thousand miles from Peru, found the north shore of Australia shortly after Willis’s seventieth birthday. A marvel of vigor and fitness, William Willis was a connoisseur of ordeal, all but orchestrating short rations, ship-wreck conditions, and crushing solitude on his trans-Pacific voyages.

He’d been inspired by Kon-Tiki, Thor Heyerdahl’s bid to prove that a primitive raft could negotiate the open ocean. Willis’s trips confirmed that a primitive man could as well. Willis survived on rye flour and seawater, sang to keep his spirits up, communicated with his wife via telepathy, suffered from bouts of temporary blindness, and eased the intermittent pain of a double hernia by looping a halyard around his ankles and dangling upside-down from his mast.

Rich with vivid detail and wry humor, Seaworthy is the story of a sailor you’ve probably never heard of but need to know. In an age when countless rafts were adrift on the waters of the world, their crews out to shore up one theory of ethno-migration or tear down another, Willis’s challenges remained refreshingly personal. His methods were eccentric, his accomplishments little short of remarkable. Don’t miss the chance to meet this singular monk of the sea.

More books from The Crown Publishing Group

Cover of the book 99 Ways to Stretch Your Home Budget by T. R. Pearson
Cover of the book The Twilight of Atheism by T. R. Pearson
Cover of the book How Companies Lie by T. R. Pearson
Cover of the book Ties That Bind by T. R. Pearson
Cover of the book A Love Undone by T. R. Pearson
Cover of the book Why Nations Fail by T. R. Pearson
Cover of the book Enemies by T. R. Pearson
Cover of the book A Childlike Heart by T. R. Pearson
Cover of the book Restoration and Romance by T. R. Pearson
Cover of the book Saving Capitalism from the Capitalists by T. R. Pearson
Cover of the book The Six Sigma Fieldbook by T. R. Pearson
Cover of the book Becoming Women of Purpose by T. R. Pearson
Cover of the book You Don't Need a Title to Be a Leader by T. R. Pearson
Cover of the book The Lights of Tenth Street by T. R. Pearson
Cover of the book The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn by T. R. Pearson
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy