Michael Richey (sailor)
| Michael Richey | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Michael William Dugdale Mills Richey 6 July 1917 Eastbourne, East Sussex |
| Died | 22 December 2009 (aged 92) Brighton, East Sussex, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Other names | Mike Richey |
| Occupation | Navigator, director of the royal institute of navigation (1947–1982) |
| Known for | Oldest sailor to cross the Atlantic single-handed |
Michael "Mike" William Dugdale Mills Richey MBE (6 July 1917 – 22 December 2009) was an English sailor and navigator and an author and editor of books and journals about navigation. His first publication, an article about his experiences in a shipwreck, was awarded the first John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in 1942.
Richey was known as a passionate sailor and regular participant at the Observer Single-handed Trans-Atlantic Race (OSTAR) organised every four years by the Royal Western Yacht Club of England. He started in each of these races between 1968 and 1996 with his small yacht Jester. Finishing his last competition in 1996 at the age of 80 he achieved an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest man who crossed the Atlantic as a solo sailor.
Michael Richey was born at Eastbourne, East Sussex, in 1917 as the second son of George and Adelaide Richey, one year after his brother Paul (1916–1989). After leaving school in 1935 at Downside School, a Catholic boarding school of the Benedictine Downside Abbey, Richey first planned to become a monk. Richey indeed spent a short time at the Trappists monastery on Caldey Island, but did not pursue this intention. Instead, the following three years he lived and worked in the Catholic artist's community of the sculptor Eric Gill at Speen near High Wycombe.
At the outbreak of World War II, Richey volunteered, despite his pacifist stance, for military service in the Royal Navy. Richey first served on a minesweeper of the Royal Naval Patrol Service, the HMS Goodwill. After the sinking of the ship because of a bombardment by German torpedoes, Richey processed the existential experience of life risk in a short story, entitled Sunk by a mine, a Survivor's Story. The war censorship in Britain prohibited the publication of this narrative, but it was published in the magazine of The New York Times in 1941 and from there it moved back to the UK: in 1942 this story was awarded the first John Llewellyn Rhys Prize for young writers – any literary appreciation for Richey however did not materialise, and he himself had no literary ambitions later. Only to celebrate his 80th birthday in 1997 another literary work by Richey, entitled A taste of the Antarctic, was published and privately printed by Nicholas Scheetz. These are travel records Richey wrote in 1943 as navigation assistant on the auxiliary cruiser MV Carnarvon Castle on a ride in the South Atlantic.
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