Sailing into history! Limerick man's circumnavigation of the globe remembered on 100th anniversary

FROM the tides of the Atlantic to the chill breeze of the Southern Indian Ocean, from the islands of the Pacific and back home, Limerick man Conor O’Brien saw it all.

Conor took the risk of a lifetime when he set sail from Foynes in 1923 - not knowing if he would ever see the banks of the port town again.

Conor did the unthinkable - he became the first amateur sailor to circumnavigate the globe - and he did it without so much as a life jacket on board or an engine on his small sailboat Saoirse - named in honour of the Irish Free State.

This year marks the centenary of Conor’s historical circumnavigation - an event was held in Foynes Yacht Club earlier this month, to commemorate his breathtaking journey.

Conor set his course due south on Wednesday, June 20, 1923. He had two other crew members aboard the small yacht.

A sextant (an instrument used to determine the angle between the horizon and a celestial body such as the Sun, the Moon, or a star), a compass and a chronometer (a timepiece on a ship, used in the determination of what longitude you are on) were the main instruments on board the Saoirse.

Conor navigated the tides of the Atlantic as he headed towards his first destination - the Portuguese island of Madeira.

“On his way down to Cape Town, his timber mast split,” Vincent Murphy said. “He had no option but to reduce the size of his main sail. He decided he’d never make it to Cape Town in the position he was in so he set sail for the Brazilian state of Pernambuco.”

Vincent, from Cork, was the speaker at the commemorative event at Foynes Yacht Club. “He visited the city of Recife, and he thought his repairs would only take three days but it took about three weeks… He thought Recife was the most beautiful city he had ever seen,” explained Vincent.

After his venture to Brazil, Conor set his sights back on Cape Town - where his crew looked after a new mast for him.
Whilst heading towards New Zealand, Conor made a pit-stop in Melbourne, Australia as he was short of “baking powder, salt and potatoes.”

He had taken on a new crew during a repair stop in Durban, South Africa.

The new crew deserted him in Melbourne so he brought on board three Tasmanians to help him along his travels.

Shortly after departure more bad luck struck Conor as it became evident that his new crew did not know how to sail a yacht.
“He sailed them back to Australia but they robbed him before they left him,” outlined Vincent.

A month later he made his way towards New Zealand with two further new crew members.

Upon departure from New Zealand, it wasn’t long until one of his crew members hurt his knee which turned septic and had to be lanced - which the sailors did themselves.

Park-and-ride facility planned for Limerick suburb

A trip back to New Zealand had to be made to bring the crew member to a hospital where he stayed for a month. “At this stage, the money was running out. He’d had his delays, his repairs and his money stolen from him,” Vincent said.

“Things were looking fairly uncertain.”

Following a detour to Tonga, one of his crew members deserted him, it was there he picked up another crew member by the name of Kioa.

He spent a total of seven months in New Zealand before departing and setting his sights on home soil and back into the Atlantic Ocean.

Following a stop in the Falklands for almost three months and a detour to the South Shetland Islands near Antarctica, Conor was back on track.

A stop was made once again in Pernambuco and finally, the task was complete, Conor had successfully circumnavigated the world, becoming the first amateur to do so. The task would not be completed by an amateur sailor again for about twenty years.

Conor and Kioa, the only two on board at that point sailed to the Azores (west of Portugal) where they picked up Conor’s sister Kitty, another confident sailor and sailed home to Ireland.

“Conor and the crew arrived in Dublin on June 19, 1925, two years all but a day from when he started,” Vincent said.

“On June 20, he sailed into Dún Laoghaire where there were 10,000 people there to greet him. It was a big event.”

It was a historic day for Irish sailing and a number of events around the country have been organised in recognition of Conor’s journey around the world.