The Long Voyage Home

When Ann Davison and .her husband Frank set out from England to sail around the world in 1949, their high adventure ended in sudden tragedy. A howling English Channel gale sent their old, 70-ft. ketch Reliance crashing on to the rocks off Portland Bill, and Davison was drowned. Ann told the story of that ill-fated trip in a bestselling book, Last Voyage (TIME, March 24, 1952), and resolved to sail alone on the first lap of the adventure she and her husband had planned together.

Ann fitted out a 23-ft. Bermuda-rigged sloop, Felicity Ann, with a 5-h.p. diesel engine, a radio receiving set, pressure kerosene stove, sextant, compass and chronometer. In May she set sail from Plymouth Harbor. Plagued by storms, she was forced to land in Brittany, Spain, Gibraltar, Casablanca. From Casablanca, she headed for the Canary Islands, was overdue 18 days and given up for lost before she finally made Las Palmas in the Canaries. Last week, 65 days later--and eight months after she started--Ann dropped anchor at Portsmouth, Dominica.

Fit and tanned after her "tough crossing," Ann alighted on the jetty from a native boat and announced: "I feel fine. I'm thrilled about landing. I have lost all sense of tiredness."

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