Evening star., 1922-12-01

, ed back to American soil by a fleet Of
| welcoming craft which met her sew
eral miles at sea, the ninety-eight-
foot motor cruiser Speejacks. said to
be the smallest boat ever to circle the
globe. slid safely up to dock here
! at noon yesterday with her party of
adventurers. headed by Albert Y.
Gowan. her owner. of Chicago, and
ended 35.o00-mile voyage which be-
gan from Miami in September. 1921.
At the dock the world wanderers re-
celved a rousing ovation from half a
; hundred friends. most of whom saw
them off on their conquest of the seas
more than year ago. and later were
rendered a Thanksgiving banquet at
a hotel.
Buffeted and tossed by storm and
gale. once a thousand miles from land
with scarcely enough gasoline to keep
one of Its motors running until it
reached port. the sturdy little craft
showed not scar on its hull and not
once once had its engines required more
than their everyday mechanical at
tention, Mr.. Gowan declared. And.
save for many sleepless nights in
cnurnlng seas, when 1t was practical
iy Impossible to stay in bunk. every
member OF the original party of elev-
en- returned none the worse for their
experiences.
Il wouldn't take five million dol.
lars for the trip. but 1 wouldn't make
II again for fifty million" Mr.. Gowan
commented
Members OF the Party.
In the party, besides Mr.. Gowan.
were: Mrs. Gowan. Capt +. r. Hogg.
who in 1916 captained Princeton'S
loot ball team: Jack Lewis. who de-
signed and superintended the con-
vrn I In
nam, photographer in chief: Bernard
Rogers of Chicago. guest: j. A.
sterling. assistant engineer and wire
less operator: f. II. Brooke, assistant
David Williamson, mate and pho
1 tographer: William Saulby, steward,
and Bert Lindekins. chef.
Inc trip was planned more than
Two years ago by MIR: Gowan. who is
vice president of the Portland Cement
Company. but a licensed navigator as
we'll. 1t was his ambition first to ex-
pIore hooks and crannies of the
world. lnlets. rivers and islands never
/ ]peiore ] touched except by canoes. and.
| ooat less than hundred feet in
| length With these things in view he
buiit the SpeejackS. sparing no ex-
! pense In making her the most sea-
! said to have cost s5O0.00o and s35. 900
MAS expended in outfitting the party
The Speejacks weights sixty-four
tons; she has two 30o-horsepower en-
! smes. giving her speed of twelve
and a half knots an hour: she has a
seventeen-foot beam and draws only
siX feet of water. Her tanks carry
enough gasoline for $500 miles. For
the trip. sail to steady her in rough
seas ana two machine guns for emcr-
Sency use were carried.
After leaving Miami the party
reaaed Tor Panama and thence to
an,u. From there on to the Sa-
moan moan Island. Fiji Islands. New
inrai,t ,u,aIt' A"SsraIa' 1s,,ndn Hermit and ,d
singapore and Sumatra were touch
ed. visits being made at some of
them Then the journey was taken
across the Indian ocean for 1900
miles. with stop at the Island of
Red sea. 1000 miles to the Mediter-
ranean the party passed the Suez
canal and chugged into Cairo and
Alexandria.
Points Next Visited.
Next visited were Athens. Naples.
Rome. Genoa. Monte Carlo, Nice,
, Marseille. Barcelona and Gibraltar,
of Africa to the Canary Islands and
to Cape Verde and finally to San
Juan. Porto Rico. and down and
across to Miami
iie SpceJdCkS was re-
ported lost, but each time turned out
to be only delayed by storms.
,, IF we had taken the advice of
tried mariners we would never have
gotten round said Mr.. Gowan God
must have been right behind us all
the way. Again and again we were
told to wait because we were striking
places in the hurricane season. But
always went straight on and always
happened-just happened-to skip
away to safety just in time
AT various points on the trip the
Speejacks lost members of her crew,
who. becoming even more adven-
turous. struck out to see certain
parts of the world by themselves.
Instead of the seven Americans she
shipped with. the little craft is
bringing back two Americans, one
Chinese. Frenchman. a Russian,
Scotchman and one without a
country
All through the journey Mr.. Gowan
kept in touch with America by
means of radio. once picking I'D a
message 5000 miles away and always
hearing the large broadcastins sta
tions.
Seventy three thousand gallons of
gasoline were consumed during the
trip and 100000 feet of film were
taken.
The most interesting incident of
the whole trip, Mr.. Gowan said, was
a seasick wedding aboard near Ia