She Survived A Shipwreck, And Then She Became The First Woman To Ever Sail The Atlantic Ocean All By Herself
Sailing is no joke. It can be very difficult and requires a lot of skill, especially if you’re doing it on your own.
The first woman to ever sail the Atlantic Ocean all by herself was Ann Davison, who is still remembered today for her courage and determination.
Ann was born in South London in 1913. Ann had many inspiring passions throughout her life. She briefly attended the London Veterinary College before taking an interest in flying and studying to become a pilot.
She eventually earned her pilot’s license in 1935 and started flying commercially. That’s how she met her husband, Frank Davison, the owner and manager of Hooton Airfield. They married in 1939.
After moving from England to a remote island in Scotland, Frank began teaching Ann how to sail, and they purchased a boat in the late 1940s with hopes of traveling the world. But then, tragedy struck. While attempting to sail to the Caribbean together, they got caught in the middle of awful weather conditions in the English Channel. Frank tragically died during the shipwreck, but Ann miraculously survived despite being an inexperienced sailor.
She wrote a book titled Last Voyage about her and Frank’s love story before deciding to set out on the journey of a lifetime.
Ann bought herself a new vessel named Felicity Ann and took two years to hone in on her sailing skills before deciding to finish the journey she and Frank began but never got to finish.
On May 18th, 1952, she sailed out of Plymouth, Massachusetts, all on her own, to travel the world and sail the Atlantic Ocean. Hitting storms and scary incidents along the way, Ann still managed to sail through Portugal, Morocco, and the Canary Islands and eventually hit land in Dominica in January of 1953.
After staying in the Caribbean for a while, Ann sailed to Florida and New York to show off her achievements at the 1954 New York Boat Show. This journey earned her the title of the first woman to single-handedly sail the Atlantic Ocean.
Ann carried on her legacy as a great author when she wrote the autobiography My Ship Is So Small, which detailed her historic journey.
mage’in – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only
During her later years, Ann eventually settled down in Florida and married Miami Herald photographer Bert Billheimer. She continued to write and sail but stopped sailing on her own. She passed away in 1992 at 78.
Ann’s boat, the Felicity Ann, was eventually donated to the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding in Port Hadlock, Washington, where experts and students have been working on its restoration.
Ann was a remarkable woman who found a way to do something meaningful after a terrible loss and is a great example of the things we can achieve when we put our minds to it.
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