Today, the auxiliary schooner Bowdoin operates under the flag of the Maine Maritime Academy, making training runs to Labrador and Greenland.
Launched in 1921, the 66-ton Bowdoin was the brainchild of Donald (Mac) MacMillan, an explorer of the far north. Specifically built for the Arctic at 88ft x 21ft, she is double-planked and double-framed in oak, beefed up at the waterline with a 5ft belt of 1½in greenheart. Her rudder is extra-large for manoeuvring in ice, her propeller is super-deep and the hull sections are rounded to rise up when nipped in ice.
Mac knew exactly what he was about, but for most of us he might have remained obscure but for the book his wife wrote in the 1930s about voyaging with him and his crew to north-west Greenland. Miriam MacMillan's I married an Explorer is long out of print but well worth chasing down. In this extract, she describes how Mac works the Bowdoin through a potentially disastrous ice situation to see the ship safely home.
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Denne historien er fra February 2022-utgaven av Yachting World.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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wallywind 110 launches
The first example of Wally Yacht's new wallywind performance cruising range launched this summer, during the iconic Italian brand's 30th anniversary year - and in time for its debut at the Monaco Yacht Show in September.
Irish skipper wins Figaro
Irish solo skipper Tom Dolan took a historic victory in this year's La Solitaire du Figaro Paprec, winning the solo multistage offshore race overall only the third non-French competitor ever to do so.
Youth AC puts on a show
Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli's team won the UniCredit Youth America's Cup after a highly absorbing series comprising 12 international teams racing the one-design AC40s off Barcelona.
ATLANTIC BEYOND
SAILING THE SECOND EXPLORATION 60 ON A WEST-TO-EAST ATLANTIC CROSSING WAS IDEAL FOR A RIGOROUS TEST OF GARCIA'S NEW NOWHERE YOU CAN'T GO FLAGSHIP
UNCONTROLLED
HELPLESSLY APPROACHING AN UNINHABITED ISLAND IN THE GALAPAGOS WITHOUT ENGINE OR ELECTRONICS, JON VAN TAMELEN FEARED BEING IMMINENTLY SHIPWRECKED
SECRET ISLAND
BEYOND THE FORBIDDING ENTRY RULES OF TAIWAN IS A CULTURE RICH IN SEAFARING HISTORY AND STUNNING LANDSCAPES, FINDS CAMERON DUECK
LAND OF THE BIRDS
SKIP NOVAK DESCRIBES THE PERILS, CHALLENGES AND JOYS OF A CRITICAL EXPEDITION VOAYGE TO SURVEY SOUTH GEORGIA'S ENDANGERED WANDERING ALBATROSS
FIRST STEPS TO BLUEWATER
YOU CAN GET INTO WORLD CRUISING FROM A STANDING START AND EXPERIENCE THINGS NO OTHER TRAVELLERS DO. CATHERINE LAWSON AND DAVID BRISTOW TALK TO FOUR COUPLES WHO PROVE IT
HARD CHOICES
IN AN EXCLUSIVE EXTRACT FROM HER NEW BOOK, PIP HARE REVEALS WHAT DROVE HER ON WHILE RACING THROUGH THE SOUTHERN OCEAN IN THE 2020 VENDÉE GLOBE.
INTO BATTLE
COULD THIS BE THE MOST COMPETITIVE VENDÉE GLOBE EVER? HELEN FRETTER FINDS OUT WHAT THE SKIPPERS WILL BE FACING.
