SurabyaKid
Member III
Our local Craigslist had an advert on Friday for teak doors and the teak cockpit grating from a vessel called the Globe Star which was circumnavigated in 1982-1984 by a gentleman then in his 60's named Marvin Creamer. This in and of itself was not particularly noteworthy with the exception that he did it with out any navigation instruments whatsoever! (Compass, clock, sextant, GPS....)
This peaked my interest a bit and it turns out he was a Professor of Geography who had a theory that it could be done and might have been done before by the ancient mariners. There is a website dedicated to his voyage (www.globstar.org) with pictures and descriptions of the voyage. He did a two part interview in 2008 that can be found here (www.furledsails.com) and even in his 90's he seems pretty sharp. After listening to the interview, I came away with the impression that he wasn't a crackpot and really did have a pretty good overall theory & sound knowledge of navigation and with a bit of luck was able to prove it could be done. I will grant that he did have the benefit of modern knowledge even if he didn't use technology.
In an age where our Navy Midshipman are no longer taught celestial navigation and 14 year olds with all the latest technologies known to man vie for the title of youngest to circumnavigate, I found the whole story very refreshing.
As a side note, the Raleigh NC couple that bought the steel hulled Globe Star did so in the hopes of restoring her to former glories and did so without a survey. It turned out her steel hull was too far gone to make any sort of restoration feasible, so they stripped her and sent her to the scrappers. I did buy the cockpit grating and one of the doors for use on my boat.
Pat
This peaked my interest a bit and it turns out he was a Professor of Geography who had a theory that it could be done and might have been done before by the ancient mariners. There is a website dedicated to his voyage (www.globstar.org) with pictures and descriptions of the voyage. He did a two part interview in 2008 that can be found here (www.furledsails.com) and even in his 90's he seems pretty sharp. After listening to the interview, I came away with the impression that he wasn't a crackpot and really did have a pretty good overall theory & sound knowledge of navigation and with a bit of luck was able to prove it could be done. I will grant that he did have the benefit of modern knowledge even if he didn't use technology.
In an age where our Navy Midshipman are no longer taught celestial navigation and 14 year olds with all the latest technologies known to man vie for the title of youngest to circumnavigate, I found the whole story very refreshing.
As a side note, the Raleigh NC couple that bought the steel hulled Globe Star did so in the hopes of restoring her to former glories and did so without a survey. It turned out her steel hull was too far gone to make any sort of restoration feasible, so they stripped her and sent her to the scrappers. I did buy the cockpit grating and one of the doors for use on my boat.
Pat