Marvin Creamer died on August 12th
The first man known to have sailed round the globe without using instruments was 104
WHEN FRANCIS DRAKE rounded the globe in 1577-80, he took an astrolabe, compass and cross-staff with him. As Ferdinand Magellan, the first known circumnavigator, started out in 1519, he had at least an astrolabe and compass. But when Marvin Creamer set sail from Cape May, New Jersey in 1982, into thick overcast and a howling gale, on a voyage of 30,000 miles requiring nearly a year at sea, he carried, to his delight, no instruments at all.
This article appeared in the Obituary section of the print edition under the headline “Wind, sea and stars”
Obituary August 29th 2020
From the August 29th 2020 edition
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