Ann Davison

Ann Davison (1914-1992) was, at the age of 39, the first woman single-handedly to sail the Atlantic Ocean. She departed Plymouth, England in her purpose-built 23 foot boat "Felicity Ann" on May 18, 1952. She landed in Brittany, Portugal and the Canary Islands, before setting sail across the Atlantic on 20 November 1952, aiming to make land-fall in Antigua. In the event storms pushed her south and having been driven past Barbados she eventually touched land in Dominica on January 23, 1953. Her autobiographical account was published as "My Ship is So Small" (1956). The Felicity Ann, built in 1939, is currently in private possession in Haines, Alaska undergoing restoration.

Ann Davison was the author of several other autobiographical works. Her first book, "Last Voyage" (Peter Davies, 1952) was written to pay off debts incurred with her husband in re-furbishing a 70 foot ketch, "Reliance". In the book she describes her life in the early 1930s as an aviator, delivering mail around the UK, and her marriage to Frank Davison, another aviator, with whom she bought and ran a small commercial airfield which had to be closed at the start of the Second World War. After the war they bought "Reliance", with the aim of crossing the Atlantic and starting a new life. The boat, which was moored at Fleetwood on the Lancashire coast, required more refurbishment than anticipated and Frank was unwilling to compromise on standards. Debts grew, and with a writ of repossession about to be nailed to the mast, Ann and Frank hurriedly set sail for the West Indies, with the boat unfinished, and into the teeth of a gale. After intense hardship, first blown down the Irish Sea then to the East along the English Channel, they were wrecked on Portland Bill on 19 May, where Frank died and Ann managed to scramble ashore.

Her second book, "Home was an Island" (Peter Davies, 1952), describes her and her husband's life after the sale of their airfield and before the purchase of "Reliance", during which time they bought and farmed a small island on Loch Lomond.

"In the Wake of the Gemini" (Little, Brown 1962) is an account of a trip by small boat, with an outboard engine, from Miami to the Hudson to the Great Lakes, then down to Florida again by way of the Mississippi

"Florida Junket" (Peter Davies, 1964) describes a sailing holiday around the Florida coast with her second husband.During the Second World War Ann and Frank worked as civilian flight instructors [The Museum of Yachting, Newport, Rhode Island] .

References

External links

*http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/OCEAN_PLANET/HTML/ocean_planet_book_davison.html
*http://www.chilkatvalleynews.com/archive/2003-16-4.html
*http://www.iln.org.uk/iln_years/year/1953.htm
*http://www.moy.org/ann_davison.htm
*http://www.flickr.com/photos/magpie/2437381703/
*http://www.chilkatvalleynews.com/archive/2008-13-2.html