Francis Chichester(1901 — 1972)
Francis Chichester
Royaume-Uni
6 min read
British aviator and sailor (1901-1972), a pioneer of solo navigation. In 1966-1967 he completed a solo round-the-world voyage under sail with just one stopover, aboard the Gipsy Moth IV.
Frequently asked questions
Key Facts
- 1929-1931: long-distance solo flights, including an England-Australia air crossing aboard a plane named Gipsy Moth
- 1960: wins the first single-handed transatlantic race (OSTAR)
- 1966-1967: solo round-the-world voyage under sail with a single stopover (Sydney), via Cape Horn, aboard the Gipsy Moth IV
- 1967: knighted by Queen Elizabeth II at Greenwich, becoming Sir Francis Chichester
Works & Achievements
One of his first great aerial crossings, which established him as a long-distance aviator.
The first solo crossing of this sea from east to west, a feat of celestial navigation to reach tiny islands.
An account of his aerial feat over the Tasman Sea.
Technical works written during the war to train navigators, the fruit of his expertise with the sextant.
He won the first single-handed transatlantic race, completing the crossing in around forty days.
His autobiography, which traces his double life as an aviator and then a sailor.
Aboard Gipsy Moth IV, at the age of 65, he sailed around the globe along the clipper route with a single stop, in Sydney.
The account of his circumnavigation, which became a classic of maritime literature.
Anecdotes
All his craft, both aircraft and sailing boats, bore the same name: Gipsy Moth. It was the model of small de Havilland aeroplane in which he had learned to fly and carried out his aerial feats of the 1930s. Having become a sailor late in life, he gave his boats the same name, right up to the famous Gipsy Moth IV.
In 1931, alone aboard a small seaplane over the Tasman Sea, without a radio, he had to find Norfolk Island and then Lord Howe Island, two tiny dots lost in the ocean. He used his sextant and a navigator's trick: deliberately aiming to one side of his target so he would know which way to turn once he reached the correct latitude. The method worked.
He completed his round-the-world voyage under sail at the age of 65, only a few years after doctors had diagnosed him with lung cancer and predicted a swift end. Setting out from Plymouth in August 1966, he made only a single stop, at Sydney, and returned in the spring of 1967 after rounding the dreaded Cape Horn.
On his return, Queen Elizabeth II knighted him at Greenwich with the very sword Queen Elizabeth I had used nearly four centuries earlier to make Francis Drake a knight. A crowd estimated at half a million people was waiting for him at Plymouth.
Chichester did not like his new boat, the Gipsy Moth IV: he found it poorly balanced, hard to steer single-handed, and complained bitterly about its faults in his logbook. Even so, it was aboard her that he sailed around the world and passed into legend.
Primary Sources
I hate being frightened, but I hate even more being kept from acting by fear.
Any fool can sail around the world sober; it takes a truly good sailor to do it with a glass in hand.
The Queen knighted Sir Francis Chichester with the sword that Queen Elizabeth I had used to knight Sir Francis Drake, nearly four centuries earlier.
Key Places
Village in south-west England where Francis Chichester was born in 1901.
Departure and arrival port of his round-the-world voyage, where a huge crowd welcomed him in 1967; he died there in 1972.
The only stopover on his solo round-the-world voyage, at the halfway point, in late 1966.
The dreaded southern tip of South America, which he rounded in March 1967, one of the most dangerous passages on the globe.
Island in the Tasman Sea where, in 1931, his seaplane was damaged by a storm; he rebuilt it before setting off again.
Site of his knighthood by the Queen in 1967; the Gipsy Moth IV was later put on display there near the Cutty Sark.
