Francis Chichester

Sir Francis Chichester KBE ( born September 17 1901 in Barnstaple, Devon, † August 26 1972 in Plymouth) was a famous British explorers, he was also an author and pilot.

Life

In 1960 he was co-founder of the first OSTAR transatlantic race. In the late 1950s he was diagnosed with cancer, the doctors gave him a few months. Despite his illness, he went on further in 1966 with the ketch Gipsy Moth IV, a single-handed circumnavigation. He started on 27 August 1966 in Plymouth in his own designed boat and returned after nine months and one day back on May 28, 1967. The circumnavigation he managed with only one stop in Sydney. He is considered the last " naval hero " of Great Britain. In London, a way was named after him, the " Francis Chichester Way ".

At his return, the Tower Bridge was opened ceremonially. Chichester was beaten for this trip from Elizabeth II knighted. The sword used to originally belonged to the seafarer Sir Francis Drake, the first Briton who has sailed around the world. In the UK, a stamp was released in 1967, which shows Chichester on the " Gipsy Moth IV".

The first Einhandweltumseglung led by Joshua Slocum in the 19th century, however, which took him three years and many stops lodged. His yacht was called spray.

Chichester was the father of the British Conservative MEP Giles Chichester.

Works

• Solo to Sydney ( 1931)
• Alone Across the Atlantic (1961 )
• The Lonely Sea and the Sky ( 1964)
• Gipsy Moth Circles the World ( 1967)