Tinkerbelle

Newsman Robert Manry fulfils his lifelong dream of sailing solo across the Atlantic Ocean from Falmouth to Falmouth.

David Mudd awaits the arrival of Tinkerbelle on the Quay in Falmouth. Robert Manry has just sailed across the Atlantic from Falmouth, Massachusetts to Falmouth Cornwall in a tiny 13.5-foot (4.1 m) sailboat. Bob’s voyage began on 1st June and ended on 17th August in 1965 and lasted 78 days. He was missing at sea for over a week until an RAF bomber from RAF Shackleton sighted him up and he opened a channel on his shortwave radio to the Cornish Coastguard Station.

Manry at Sea (2018) produced by Steve Wystach documents the voyage of the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper’s copy editor who fulfilled his childhood dream of sailing solo across the Atlantic Ocean. Manry had served prison time as a conscientious objector during the Second World War before becoming a US Army photographer and filmed his journey on a 16mm film camera. Manry left Cape Cod quietly but news organisations were alerted five weeks into his voyage when a freight ship announced his position. Interviewed 250 miles off the Cornish coast, he sailed into Falmouth eight days later to a hero’s welcome. Tinkerbelle is on display at The Western Reserve Historical Society near Manry Park in Willowick.