Stanley Smith

Gordon (hlg@pacbell.net)
Thu, 17 Jun 1999 23:30:45 -0700


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West Wight Potter Website at URL
http://www.lesbois.com/wwpotter/
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>Mac, I have read October Potter. As I remember, Stanley Smith made quite a
>point about him carrying extra floatation, and there was something about him
>abandoning the boat in breakers because he felt the boat would not survive.
>Interestingly enough the boat did survive and maybe he might have been better
>off staying with it. Came close to drowning didn't he?
>He doesn't advocate ocean cruising in small boats (and reading between the
>lines, I think he thought himself a damned fool for sailing the North sea
>himself). I do not buy into "The Gospel according to Stanley Smith". I think
>he was/is a neat guy, and I am sure he knew/knows more than I'll ever know
>about sailing but please don't let us beatify him!
>
>Bernie.
>
I'm inclined to think anybody who sails across oceans in small boats like
Stanley did is using questionable judgment. But Smith sailed the Atlantic
in both directions in the 20 ft _Nova Espero_, which he and his brother
built (then extensively rebuilt for the second voyage) before he designed
and manufactured the Potter that he sailed to Sweden, so he must have been
doing a lot of things right.

Both from the standpoint of his experience and the fact that he designed
the Potter, I'm inclined to take seriously his comments about how the
Potter should be trimmed and sailed.

It is still possible to find copies of _The Wind Calls the Tune_, the book
by Stanley Smith and Charles Violet about Smith's second crossing in the
_Nova Espero_, this one going the "wrong way" - from England to New York in
1951.

Smith's _October Potter_ account of the Potter sail to Sweden and his
advice about the Potter is available on the WWP web page at
<http://www.lesbois.com/wwpotter/articles/October_Potter.htm>.

Here are the final paragraphs of Smith's account of the landing at Hvide
Sande. It explains why he left the boat. An attempted rescue by a fishing
boat had been unsuccessful. The sea anchor he refers to was very unusual
and is illustrated in the October Potter account on the WWP web page.
_______________________________

Meanwhile, as I got closer to the shore the intervals between the
breakers became less and less, until the whole sea was a vast roaring,
boiling mass of white water. I was fastened to the boat with my lifeline,
but each breaker nearly battered me senseless.

I never before had to fight so hard to live. After each breaker I
found myself, legs one moment. head and arms the next, tangled up in the
running rigging. I had to cut myself free time and time again. By the time
I and the boat had got to within a few hundred feet of the beach the
sea-anchor probably dragged on the ground beneath. I could occasionally
feel my feet touch the ground and I knew I had to break the general golden
rule. The boat was not getting into shallow water fast enough to save me.
I had to cut myself free and make it by myself.

I could see several men running along the beach now. I cut myself
finally free and swam, and was hurled towards them, then dragged back
again into deeper water by the powerful under-tow. This happened it seemed
interminably, as in a nightmare. Somehow I remember I was stood up looking
at them, waist deep in seaward swirling water. I expected the next breaker
to carry me off my feet at any moment. I did not look behind me, only at
the men on the beach, safe and secure, only a few feet from me.

If they could not reach me. I certainly could not reach them. My
entire energy had been used up.

They waded in and I collapsed, unconscious, just as they reached me.
__________________________________

Harry