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26-foot square- rigged "Ingersoll's Improved Metallic Lifeboat," named the Red, White & Blue, from New Jersey to England in 35 days. In 1874, another American, Paul Boyton set out to demonstrate the effec- tiveness of a novel lifesaving outfit called the Merriman Inflatable Immersion Suit, by jumping over the side of a steamship Queen 30 miles off the Irish coast in a fierce storm. During the night, 56 ships were lost around the British Isles. Not, however, Boyton, who remained safe and sound inside his buoyant suit. He paddled ashore, then continued paddling another ten miles to Cork, where the Irish-born Boyton was hailed as a hero. He liked the role of hero, because he later paddled in his Merriman suit across the English Channel, the Straits of Gibraltar and Messina, down the Hudson, Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. John MacGregor is said to have practically invented the sport of canoeing or kayaking (two very different sports). He conducted some epic voyages in his small craft for a greater purpose: that of saving souls by handing out religious tracts from his canoe. He called it "Muscular Christianity," and he wrote about it in his 1866 book, "A Thousand Miles in the Rob Roy Canoe." He built 21-foot yawl-rigged catboat and sailed it alone across the English Channel and up the Seine to Paris, and later kayaked around the Holy Land and conducted other such voyages for the acclaim and adventure, and the chance to convert non-believers. Few commercial fishing boats are smaller than a dory. For Danish-born Alfred Johnson, a Grand banks dory man out of Cape Ann, Massachusetts, his small flat-bottomed dory was a per- fectly good boat to sail across the Atlantic. Doing so, he thought, would bring his some favorable attention at the upcoming 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. He decked over a dory, built a small hatch to sit in, fitted the boat with a tiller, modified it to carry stores, and named his craft the Centennial. He took a compass, some charts and supplies for the trip. Despite being battered by a gale, losing part of the hatch combing, taking on a great deal of water, actually rolling over at one point, and losing his stove and spoil- ing much of his stores, he still made it. He had one sail left, and dead-reckoned himself toward the Irish coast. Several ships came along side, offering him some food and water, and gave him his bearings. On Aug. 12, he arrived at Abercastle in Wales, and then continued on to Liverpool. If he was seeking fame, he had missed out on the Centennial Exposition. But he had earned fame as being the first solo Atlantic crossing in a small boat. Thomas Crapo would find fame. But to achieve it, he would need to sail the Atlantic in a smaller boat (establishing a pattern that continues to this day). For Crapo that meant doing what Johnson did, but with a boat half the size. His motivation was money. His dory, New Bedford, was just 19- feet, seven inches long. Crapo's wife, Joanna, insisted on going along, but to make his feat meaningful he forbade his wife from helping in any way. If he thought her presence might diminish his own accomplishment, having his young bride on the voyage contributed to the publicity value. The couple sailed on May 28, 1877. The 1,100 mile voyage was difficult. It took a toll on both of them, particularly Joanna. Although not 58 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News " O N N I E , A N E % L K ' R O V E 6 I L L A G E ) , & O R M O R E I N F O R M A T I O N C A L L O R & A X W W W A M E R I C C O M WACO Products, Inc. WACO Products, Inc. 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