Alan Villiers
Encyclopedia
Captain Alan John Villiers (23 September 1903 – 3 March 1982) was an author, adventurer, photographer and Master Mariner
.
Born in Melbourne
, Australia
, he first went to sea at age 15 and sailed all the world's oceans on board traditionally rigged
vessels, including the full rigged ship
Joseph Conrad
. He also commanded the Mayflower II
on its voyage from the United Kingdom to the United States.
Villiers wrote 25 books, and served as the Chairman of the Society for Nautical Research, a Trustee of the National Maritime Museum
, and Governor of the Cutty Sark Preservation Society. He was awarded the British Distinguished Service Cross as a Commander
in the Royal Naval Reserve
during World War II
.
and longed for the day on which he too could sail out to sea.
Leaving home at the age of 15, he joined the barque
Rothesay Bay as an apprentice. The Rothesay Bay operated in the Tasman Sea
, trading between Australia and New Zealand
. Villiers was a natural seaman. He learned quickly and gained the respect of his shipmates.
An accident on board the barque Lawhill
beached Villiers in 1922, by then a seasoned Able Seaman. He sought employment as a journalist
at the Hobart Mercury
newspaper in Tasmania
while he recovered from his wounds.
and his whaling
factory ship, the Sir James Clark Ross came to port with five whale chasers in tow in late 1923. His accounts of the trip would eventually be published as Whaling in the Frozen South. Named for the Antarctica explorer James Clark Ross
, the Ross was the largest whale factory ship in the world, weighing in at 12,000 tons. It was headed for the southern Ross Sea, the last whale stronghold left. Villiers writes: "We had caught 228, most of them blues, the biggest over 100 feet long. These yielded 17,000 barrels of oil; we had hoped for at least 40,000, with luck 60,000."
Villiers' passage on board the Herzogin Cecile in 1927 would result in his publication of Falmouth for Orders. Through it he met the de Cloux family, who later became his partners in the barque Parma. He wrote By Way of Cape Horn after his harrowing experiences on board the Grace Harwar in 1929.
The full-rigged ship Grace Harwar was beautiful as the "wind in her rigging called imperiously as she lay at the pier at Wallaroo". As Villiers stood on the dock, a wharf laborer warned "Don't ship out in her! She's a killer." The warning would prove true, as Villiers' friend Ronald Walker was lost by the time Grace Harwar made Ireland. More than 40 years old at the time, the ship had barnacles and algae
growing along her waterline. "Dirty bottoms make slow ships, and slow ships make hard passages." Villiers had a desire to document the great sailing ships before it was too late, and Grace was one of the last working full-riggers. With a small ill-paid crew and no need for coal
, such vessels undercut steam ships, and maybe 20 ships were still involved in the trade. The ill-fated voyage took 138 days, the Grace the last of the fleet for the year.
The voyage was filmed in both movie (6,000 feet) and still form, serving as a record of significant images of that period. Delta Productions in Glendale, California has original audio tracks and film footage from the Dwight Long collection. Long presented Last of the Great Seadogs, Square Riggers of the Past originally as an Armchair Adventures lecture series at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. He showed it as a motion picture, in Los Angeles, California, circa 1976. Delta Productions is restoring the sailing films and photos to help preserve the art of "Sailing Tall Ships".
. Continuing in the grain trade, he proved an able shiphandler. In 1932 he won the unofficial "grain race" between the ships of the trade, arriving in 103 days despite broaching in a gale. In 1933, he made it in 83 days.
After selling his shares back to the de Cloux family, Villiers went on to purchase the Georg Stage in 1934. A full rigged sailing ship
of 400 tons, originally built in 1882 by Burmeister & Wain in Copenhagen
, Denmark
, she was employed as a sailing school ship
by Stiftelsen Georg Stages Minde. Saving her from the scrapyard, Villiers renamed her the Joseph Conrad
, after the author
of The Nigger of the 'Narcissus'
, Typhoon, and The Shadow-Line, who was also an accomplished seaman.
A sail training
pioneer, Villiers circumnavigated
the globe with an amateur crew. He used the unique environment of the sea to build character and discipline in his young crew and, with his contemporaries Irving and Exy Johnson
, he helped form the modern concept of sail training. It is used not to teach youth for a life at sea, but to use the sea to teach youth for life.
Returning almost two years later, Villiers sold the Joseph Conrad to George Huntington Hartford. He published two books of his adventures, Cruise of the "Conrad" and Stormalong. The Joseph Conrad is maintained and operated as a museum ship
at Mystic Seaport
in Connecticut, USA, where she continues to educate the youth of today in the rich history of the age of sail.
196.jpg)
With the outbreak of World War II
, Villiers was commissioned as a Lieutenant
in the Royal Naval Reserve
in 1940. He served in Operation Dynamo
at Dunkirk
; as Stukas
dived in on the weary troops, a great variety of British vessels evacuated the troops across the Channel
.
Villiers was assigned to a convoy of 24 LCI(L)'s, or Landing craft
, Infantry (Large). Ordered to deliver them across the Atlantic
, with a 40 percent loss rate expected, Villiers got all but one safely across. He commanded "flights" of LCI(L)'s on D-Day
in the Battle of Normandy, the Invasion of Sicily
, and the Burma Campaign
in the Pacific
. By the end of the War, Villiers had been promoted to Commander
, awarded the British Distinguished Service Cross, and made a Commander of the Portuguese Order of St. James of the Sword for his gallant conduct.
in her 1957 maiden voyage across the Atlantic, 337 years after the original Mayflower
, and beating her predecessor's time of 67 days by 13 days. He has been involved in almost every large historical sailing ship still in existence including the Balclutha
, the USCGC Eagle
, the Falls of Clyde, the Gazela
, the Sagres II, and would also prove instrumental in the restoration of the Star of India
. Cadets at the Outward Bound Sea School in Wales remember him as skipper of their training ship Warspite. He was also involved in the creation of the replica of the HM Bark Endeavour
and advised on the 1962 MGM movie Mutiny on the Bounty
. Villiers was a regular contributor to the National Geographic Magazine
throughout the 1950s and 1960s.
Villiers served as Chairman of the Society for Nautical Research, a Trustee of the National Maritime Museum
, and Governor of the Cutty Sark Preservation Society. He died on 3 March 1982.
Master mariner
A Master Mariner or MM is the professional qualification required for someone to serve as the person in charge or person in command of a commercial vessel. In England, the term Master Mariner has been in use at least since the 13th century, reflecting the fact that in guild or livery company terms,...
.
Born in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, he first went to sea at age 15 and sailed all the world's oceans on board traditionally rigged
Rigging
Rigging is the apparatus through which the force of the wind is used to propel sailboats and sailing ships forward. This includes masts, yards, sails, and cordage.-Terms and classifications:...
vessels, including the full rigged ship
Full rigged ship
A full rigged ship or fully rigged ship is a sailing vessel with three or more masts, all of them square rigged. A full rigged ship is said to have a ship rig....
Joseph Conrad
Joseph Conrad (ship)
Joseph Conrad is an iron-hulled sailing ship, originally launched as the Georg Stage in 1882 and used to train sailors in Denmark. After sailing around the world as a private yacht in 1934 it served as a training in the United States, and is now a museum ship at Mystic Seaport in...
. He also commanded the Mayflower II
Mayflower II
The Mayflower II is a replica of the 17th century ship Mayflower, celebrated for transporting the Pilgrims to the New World.The replica was built in Devon, England, during 1955–1956, in a collaboration between Englishman Warwick Charlton and Plimoth Plantation, an American museum...
on its voyage from the United Kingdom to the United States.
Villiers wrote 25 books, and served as the Chairman of the Society for Nautical Research, a Trustee of the National Maritime Museum
National Maritime Museum
The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England is the leading maritime museum of the United Kingdom and may be the largest museum of its kind in the world. The historic buildings forming part of the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site, it also incorporates the Royal Observatory, Greenwich,...
, and Governor of the Cutty Sark Preservation Society. He was awarded the British Distinguished Service Cross as a Commander
Commander
Commander is a naval rank which is also sometimes used as a military title depending on the individual customs of a given military service. Commander is also used as a rank or title in some organizations outside of the armed forces, particularly in police and law enforcement.-Commander as a naval...
in the Royal Naval Reserve
Royal Naval Reserve
The Royal Naval Reserve is the volunteer reserve force of the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom. The present Royal Naval Reserve was formed in 1958 by merging the original Royal Naval Reserve and the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve , a reserve of civilian volunteers founded in 1903...
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Early history
Alan John Villiers was the second son of Australian poet and union leader Leon Joseph Villiers. The young Villiers grew up on the docks watching the merchant ships come in and out of the Port of MelbournePort of Melbourne
The Port of Melbourne is Australia's busiest port for containerised and general cargo. It is located in Melbourne, Victoria and covers an area at the mouth of the Yarra River, downstream of Bolte Bridge, which is at the head of Port Phillip, as well as several piers on the bay itself...
and longed for the day on which he too could sail out to sea.
Leaving home at the age of 15, he joined the barque
Barque
A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts.- History of the term :The word barque appears to have come from the Greek word baris, a term for an Egyptian boat. This entered Latin as barca, which gave rise to the Italian barca, Spanish barco, and the French barge and...
Rothesay Bay as an apprentice. The Rothesay Bay operated in the Tasman Sea
Tasman Sea
The Tasman Sea is the large body of water between Australia and New Zealand, approximately across. It extends 2,800 km from north to south. It is a south-western segment of the South Pacific Ocean. The sea was named after the Dutch explorer Abel Janszoon Tasman, the first recorded European...
, trading between Australia and New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
. Villiers was a natural seaman. He learned quickly and gained the respect of his shipmates.
An accident on board the barque Lawhill
Lawhill
The Lawhill was a steel-hulled four-masted barque rigged in "jubilee" or "baldheaded" fashion, i.e. without royal sails over the topgallant sails, active in the early part of the 20th century...
beached Villiers in 1922, by then a seasoned Able Seaman. He sought employment as a journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
at the Hobart Mercury
The Mercury (Hobart)
The Mercury is a daily newspaper, published in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, by Davies Brothers Pty Ltd, part of News Limited and News Corporation...
newspaper in Tasmania
Tasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
while he recovered from his wounds.
Writer and adventurer
The call of the sea was strong, and soon Villiers was back at sea when the great explorer and whaler Carl Anton LarsenCarl Anton Larsen
Carl Anton Larsen was a Norwegian Antarctic Explorer, who made important contributions to the exploration of Antarctica, the most significant being the first discovery of fossils, for which he received the Back Grant from the Royal Geographical Society...
and his whaling
Whaling
Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...
factory ship, the Sir James Clark Ross came to port with five whale chasers in tow in late 1923. His accounts of the trip would eventually be published as Whaling in the Frozen South. Named for the Antarctica explorer James Clark Ross
James Clark Ross
Sir James Clark Ross , was a British naval officer and explorer. He explored the Arctic with his uncle Sir John Ross and Sir William Parry, and later led his own expedition to Antarctica.-Arctic explorer:...
, the Ross was the largest whale factory ship in the world, weighing in at 12,000 tons. It was headed for the southern Ross Sea, the last whale stronghold left. Villiers writes: "We had caught 228, most of them blues, the biggest over 100 feet long. These yielded 17,000 barrels of oil; we had hoped for at least 40,000, with luck 60,000."
Villiers' passage on board the Herzogin Cecile in 1927 would result in his publication of Falmouth for Orders. Through it he met the de Cloux family, who later became his partners in the barque Parma. He wrote By Way of Cape Horn after his harrowing experiences on board the Grace Harwar in 1929.
The full-rigged ship Grace Harwar was beautiful as the "wind in her rigging called imperiously as she lay at the pier at Wallaroo". As Villiers stood on the dock, a wharf laborer warned "Don't ship out in her! She's a killer." The warning would prove true, as Villiers' friend Ronald Walker was lost by the time Grace Harwar made Ireland. More than 40 years old at the time, the ship had barnacles and algae
Algae
Algae are a large and diverse group of simple, typically autotrophic organisms, ranging from unicellular to multicellular forms, such as the giant kelps that grow to 65 meters in length. They are photosynthetic like plants, and "simple" because their tissues are not organized into the many...
growing along her waterline. "Dirty bottoms make slow ships, and slow ships make hard passages." Villiers had a desire to document the great sailing ships before it was too late, and Grace was one of the last working full-riggers. With a small ill-paid crew and no need for coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
, such vessels undercut steam ships, and maybe 20 ships were still involved in the trade. The ill-fated voyage took 138 days, the Grace the last of the fleet for the year.
The voyage was filmed in both movie (6,000 feet) and still form, serving as a record of significant images of that period. Delta Productions in Glendale, California has original audio tracks and film footage from the Dwight Long collection. Long presented Last of the Great Seadogs, Square Riggers of the Past originally as an Armchair Adventures lecture series at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. He showed it as a motion picture, in Los Angeles, California, circa 1976. Delta Productions is restoring the sailing films and photos to help preserve the art of "Sailing Tall Ships".
Ship owner and circumnavigator
Villiers reunited with the de Cloux family in 1931, becoming a partner with them in the four-masted barque ParmaParma (barque)
Parma was a four-masted steel-hulled barque which was built in 1902 as Arrow for the Anglo-American Oil Co Ltd, London. In 1912 she was sold to F. Laeisz, Hamburg, Germany. During the First World War she was interned in Chile, and postwar was assigned to the United Kingdom as war reparations. She...
. Continuing in the grain trade, he proved an able shiphandler. In 1932 he won the unofficial "grain race" between the ships of the trade, arriving in 103 days despite broaching in a gale. In 1933, he made it in 83 days.
After selling his shares back to the de Cloux family, Villiers went on to purchase the Georg Stage in 1934. A full rigged sailing ship
Full rigged ship
A full rigged ship or fully rigged ship is a sailing vessel with three or more masts, all of them square rigged. A full rigged ship is said to have a ship rig....
of 400 tons, originally built in 1882 by Burmeister & Wain in Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
, Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, she was employed as a sailing school ship
School ship
A training ship is a ship used to train students as sailors. The term is especially used for ships employed by navies to train future officers. Essentially there are two types: those used for training at sea and old hulks used to house classrooms....
by Stiftelsen Georg Stages Minde. Saving her from the scrapyard, Villiers renamed her the Joseph Conrad
Joseph Conrad (ship)
Joseph Conrad is an iron-hulled sailing ship, originally launched as the Georg Stage in 1882 and used to train sailors in Denmark. After sailing around the world as a private yacht in 1934 it served as a training in the United States, and is now a museum ship at Mystic Seaport in...
, after the author
Joseph Conrad
Joseph Conrad was a Polish-born English novelist.Conrad is regarded as one of the great novelists in English, although he did not speak the language fluently until he was in his twenties...
of The Nigger of the 'Narcissus'
The Nigger of the 'Narcissus'
The Nigger of the 'Narcissus': A Tale of the Sea is a novella by Joseph Conrad. Because of its quality compared to earlier works, some have described it as marking the start of Conrad's major period; others have placed it as the best work of his early period. John G...
, Typhoon, and The Shadow-Line, who was also an accomplished seaman.
A sail training
Sail training
From its modern interpretations to its antecedents when maritime nations would send young naval officer candidates to sea , sail training provides an unconventional and effective way of building many useful skills on and off the water....
pioneer, Villiers circumnavigated
Circumnavigation
Circumnavigation – literally, "navigation of a circumference" – refers to travelling all the way around an island, a continent, or the entire planet Earth.- Global circumnavigation :...
the globe with an amateur crew. He used the unique environment of the sea to build character and discipline in his young crew and, with his contemporaries Irving and Exy Johnson
Irving Johnson
Irving McClure Johnson was an American author, lecturer, adventurer, and sail training pioneer....
, he helped form the modern concept of sail training. It is used not to teach youth for a life at sea, but to use the sea to teach youth for life.
Returning almost two years later, Villiers sold the Joseph Conrad to George Huntington Hartford. He published two books of his adventures, Cruise of the "Conrad" and Stormalong. The Joseph Conrad is maintained and operated as a museum ship
Museum ship
A museum ship, or sometimes memorial ship, is a ship that has been preserved and converted into a museum open to the public, for educational or memorial purposes...
at Mystic Seaport
Mystic Seaport
Mystic Seaport, the Museum of America and the Sea, in Mystic, Connecticut, is notable both for its collection of sailing ships and boats, and for the re-creation of crafts and fabric of an entire 19th century seafaring village...
in Connecticut, USA, where she continues to educate the youth of today in the rich history of the age of sail.
World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Villiers was commissioned as a Lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
in the Royal Naval Reserve
Royal Naval Reserve
The Royal Naval Reserve is the volunteer reserve force of the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom. The present Royal Naval Reserve was formed in 1958 by merging the original Royal Naval Reserve and the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve , a reserve of civilian volunteers founded in 1903...
in 1940. He served in Operation Dynamo
Operation Dynamo
The Dunkirk evacuation, commonly known as the Miracle of Dunkirk, code-named Operation Dynamo by the British, was the evacuation of Allied soldiers from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, France, between 26 May and the early hours of 3 June 1940, because the British, French and Belgian troops were...
at Dunkirk
Battle of Dunkirk
The Battle of Dunkirk was a battle in the Second World War between the Allies and Germany. A part of the Battle of France on the Western Front, the Battle of Dunkirk was the defence and evacuation of British and allied forces in Europe from 26 May–4 June 1940.After the Phoney War, the Battle of...
; as Stukas
Junkers Ju 87
The Junkers Ju 87 or Stuka was a two-man German ground-attack aircraft...
dived in on the weary troops, a great variety of British vessels evacuated the troops across the Channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
.
Villiers was assigned to a convoy of 24 LCI(L)'s, or Landing craft
Landing craft
Landing craft are boats and seagoing vessels used to convey a landing force from the sea to the shore during an amphibious assault. Most renowned are those used to storm the beaches of Normandy, the Mediterranean, and many Pacific islands during WWII...
, Infantry (Large). Ordered to deliver them across the Atlantic
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
, with a 40 percent loss rate expected, Villiers got all but one safely across. He commanded "flights" of LCI(L)'s on D-Day
D-Day
D-Day is a term often used in military parlance to denote the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. "D-Day" often represents a variable, designating the day upon which some significant event will occur or has occurred; see Military designation of days and hours for similar...
in the Battle of Normandy, the Invasion of Sicily
Allied invasion of Sicily
The Allied invasion of Sicily, codenamed Operation Husky, was a major World War II campaign, in which the Allies took Sicily from the Axis . It was a large scale amphibious and airborne operation, followed by six weeks of land combat. It launched the Italian Campaign.Husky began on the night of...
, and the Burma Campaign
Burma Campaign
The Burma Campaign in the South-East Asian Theatre of World War II was fought primarily between British Commonwealth, Chinese and United States forces against the forces of the Empire of Japan, Thailand, and the Indian National Army. British Commonwealth land forces were drawn primarily from...
in the Pacific
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
. By the end of the War, Villiers had been promoted to Commander
Commander
Commander is a naval rank which is also sometimes used as a military title depending on the individual customs of a given military service. Commander is also used as a rank or title in some organizations outside of the armed forces, particularly in police and law enforcement.-Commander as a naval...
, awarded the British Distinguished Service Cross, and made a Commander of the Portuguese Order of St. James of the Sword for his gallant conduct.
Later years
Married in 1940 to his second wife Nancie, Villiers settled in Oxford, England, and continued to be active in sailing and writing. He was the Captain of the Mayflower IIMayflower II
The Mayflower II is a replica of the 17th century ship Mayflower, celebrated for transporting the Pilgrims to the New World.The replica was built in Devon, England, during 1955–1956, in a collaboration between Englishman Warwick Charlton and Plimoth Plantation, an American museum...
in her 1957 maiden voyage across the Atlantic, 337 years after the original Mayflower
Mayflower
The Mayflower was the ship that transported the English Separatists, better known as the Pilgrims, from a site near the Mayflower Steps in Plymouth, England, to Plymouth, Massachusetts, , in 1620...
, and beating her predecessor's time of 67 days by 13 days. He has been involved in almost every large historical sailing ship still in existence including the Balclutha
Balclutha (1886)
Balclutha, also known as Star of Alaska, Pacific Queen, or Sailing Ship BALCLUTHA, is a steel-hulled full rigged ship that was built in 1886. She is the only square rigged ship left in the San Francisco Bay area and is representative of several different commercial ventures, including lumber,...
, the USCGC Eagle
USCGC Eagle (WIX-327)
The is a barque used as a training cutter for future officers of the United States Coast Guard. She is one of only two active commissioned sailing vessels in American military service, the other being the USS Constitution....
, the Falls of Clyde, the Gazela
Gazela
Gazela is a 1901 wooden tall-ship homeported in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She serves as the maritime goodwill ambassador for the City of Philadelphia, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the Ports of Philadelphia and Camden, New Jersey...
, the Sagres II, and would also prove instrumental in the restoration of the Star of India
Star of India (ship)
Star of India was built in 1863 as Euterpe, a full-rigged iron windjammer ship in Ramsey, Isle of Man. After a full career sailing from Great Britain to India and New Zealand, she became a salmon hauler on the Alaska to California route...
. Cadets at the Outward Bound Sea School in Wales remember him as skipper of their training ship Warspite. He was also involved in the creation of the replica of the HM Bark Endeavour
HM Bark Endeavour
HMS Endeavour, also known as HM Bark Endeavour, was a British Royal Navy research vessel commanded by Lieutenant James Cook on his first voyage of discovery, to Australia and New Zealand from 1769 to 1771....
and advised on the 1962 MGM movie Mutiny on the Bounty
Mutiny on the Bounty (1962 film)
Mutiny on the Bounty is a 1962 film starring Marlon Brando and Trevor Howard based on the novel Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall. The film retells the 1789 real-life mutiny aboard HMAV Bounty led by Fletcher Christian against the ship's captain, William Bligh...
. Villiers was a regular contributor to the National Geographic Magazine
National Geographic Magazine
National Geographic, formerly the National Geographic Magazine, is the official journal of the National Geographic Society. It published its first issue in 1888, just nine months after the Society itself was founded...
throughout the 1950s and 1960s.
Villiers served as Chairman of the Society for Nautical Research, a Trustee of the National Maritime Museum
National Maritime Museum
The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England is the leading maritime museum of the United Kingdom and may be the largest museum of its kind in the world. The historic buildings forming part of the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site, it also incorporates the Royal Observatory, Greenwich,...
, and Governor of the Cutty Sark Preservation Society. He died on 3 March 1982.
Books
- A.J. Villiers; Whaling In The Frozen South (1925 The Bobbs-Merrill co.)
- Alan Villiers; The Wind Ship (1928) Hurst & Blackett, Ltd.)
- A.J. Villiers; Falmouth for Orders (1929 Henry Holt and Company)
- A.J. Villiers; By way of Cape Horn (1930 Henry Holt and Co); illustrated with photographs taken by Ronald Gregory Walker and the author
- A.J. Villiers; Sea Dogs of Today (1931 Henry Holt & Company)
- Alan Villiers; Vanished Fleets (1931 Charles Scribner's Sons, ISBN 0-684-14112-4)
- Alan Villiers; The Sea in Ships (1932 G. Routledge and Sons Ltd.)
- A.J. Villiers; Voyage of the "Parma"; The Great Grain Race of 1932 (1933 G. Bles)
- Alan Villiers; Grain Race (1933 Charles Scribner's Sons)
- Alan J. Villiers; With over 200 photographs by the author; Last of the Wind Ships (1934 William Morrow and Co)
- Alan Villiers; The Sea in Ships (1934 William Morrow and Co)
- Alan Villiers; Cruise of the Conrad (1937 Charles Scribner's Sons)
- Alan Villiers; Stormalong (1937 Charles Scribner's Sons)
- Alan J. Villiers; The Making of a Sailor (1938 William Morrow and Co)
- Alan Villiers; Illustrated by Victor J. Dowling Joey Goes To Sea (1939 Charles Scribner's Sons)
- Alan Villiers; Sons of Sinbad (1940 Charles Scribner's Sons)
- Alan Villiers; Illustrated with woodcuts by Charles Pont; Whalers of the Midnight Sun (1947 Charles Scribner's Sons)
- Alan Villiers; The Set of the Sails; The Story of a Cape Horn Seaman (1949 Hodder and Stoughton)
- John Villiers; The Coral Sea (1949 Museum Press)
- Alan Villiers; The Quest of the Schooner Argus (1951 Charles Scribner's Sons)
- Alan Villiers; The Indian Ocean (1952 Museum Press)
- Alan Villiers; Monsoon Seas (1952 McGraw Hill)
- Alan Villiers; Illustrated by Jean Main and David Cobb And Not To Yield; A Story of the Outward Bound School of Adventure (1953 Scribner)
- Alan Villiers with an introduction by the Duke of Edinburgh; The Cutty Sark; Last of A Glorious Era (1953 Hodder and Stoughton)
- Alan Villiers; The Way of a Ship (1953 Charles Scribner's Sons)
- Alan Villiers; Sailing Eagle (1955 Charles Scribner's Sons)
- Alan Villiers; Pioneers of the Seven Seas (1956 Routledge & Paul)
- Alan Villiers; Wild Ocean (1957 McGraw Hill)
- Alan Villiers; The New Mayflower (1958 Scribner)
- Alan Villiers; Give me a ship to sail (1959 Charles Scribner's Sons)
- Alan Villiers; Of Ships and Men, a Personal Anthology (1962 Newnes)
- Alan Villiers; The Ocean; Man's Conquest of the Sea (1963 Dutton)
- Alan Villiers; Oceans of the World; Man's Conquest of the Sea (1963 Museum Press Ltd.)
- Alan Villiers; The Battle of Trafalgar (1965 Macmillan)
- Alan Villiers; Captain Cook (1967 Scribner)
- Alan Villiers; The Deep Sea Fishermen (1970 Hodder and Stoughton)
- Alan Villiers; The War with Cape Horn (1971 Pan Books Ltd., ISBN 0-330-23697-0)
- Alan Villiers; With Drawings by Mark Myers; My Favourite Sea Stories (1972 Lutterworth Press)
- Alan Villiers and Henri Picard; The Bounty Ships of France (1972 Charles Scribner's Sons, ISBN 0-684-13184-6)
- Alan Villiers; Foreword by Melville Bell Grosvenor; Men Ships and the Sea (1973 National Geographic Society, ISBN 0-87044-018-7)
- Alan Villiers; Posted Missing (1974 Charles Scribner's Sons, ISBN 0-684-13871-9)
- Alan Villiers; Voyaging With The Wind: An Introduction to Sailing Large Square Rigged Ships (1975 H.M. Stationery Office)
External links
- National Maritime Museum archive of Centenary exhibit and bio
- National Library of Australia Papers of Alan Villiers
- Archives & Collections Society List of books published by Alan Villiers
- Rounding Cape Horn in a Windjammer by Alan Villiers, National Geographic Magazine, February 1931
- Alan Villiers Resource Page Villiers writings and more.