__NOTOC__ Irving McClure Johnson (July 4, 1905 – January 2, 1991) was an American

sail training From its modern interpretations to its antecedents when maritime nations would send young naval officer candidates to sea (e.g., see Outward Bound), sail training provides an unconventional and effective way of building many useful skills on a ...

pioneer, adventurer, lecturer and writer.

Early life

Johnson was born in

Hadley, Massachusetts Hadley (, ) is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 5,325 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The area around the Hampshire and Mountain Farms ...

, the fifth child of the writer Clifton Johnson and Anna Tweed McQueston.

Sailing

Johnson became a professional sailor, joining the Merchant Marine in 1926, working summers as crew and captain of various yachts including the "Charmian" for Newcomb Carlton (President of

Western Union The Western Union Company is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Denver, Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1851 as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company in Rochester, New York, the co ...

), which led to the opportunity to sail on the ''

Peking Beijing, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's most populous national capital city as well as China's second largest city by urban area after Shanghai. It is l ...

.'' He was an amateur filmmaker and his footage on the

barque A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing ship, sailing vessel with three or more mast (sailing), masts of which the fore mast, mainmast, and any additional masts are Square rig, rigged square, and only the aftmost mast (mizzen in three-maste ...

''Peking'' in 1929 would become the film ''Around Cape Horn''. While serving as

mate Mate may refer to: Science * Mate, one of a pair of animals involved in: ** Mate choice, intersexual selection *** Mate choice in humans ** Mating * Multi-antimicrobial extrusion protein, or MATE, an efflux transporter family of proteins Pers ...

on board the ''Wanderbird'', Johnson met (Harriet) Electa "Exy" Search whom he married in 1932. The Johnsons circumnavigated the world seven times on two vessels, both named ''Yankee'', each trip with a new crew and each taking approximately 18 months. The first ''Yankee'', bought in 1933, was a Dutch North Sea pilot schooner. (Before becoming an actor,

Sterling Hayden Sterling Walter Hayden (born Sterling Relyea Walter; March 26, 1916 – May 23, 1986) was an American actor, author, sailor, and Marine. A leading man for most of his career, he specialized in Westerns and film noir throughout the 1950s, in film ...

served as mate aboard the first ''Yankee''.) The second ''

Yankee The term ''Yankee'' and its contracted form ''Yank'' have several interrelated meanings, all referring to people from the United States. Their various meanings depend on the context, and may refer to New Englanders, the Northeastern United Stat ...

'', bought in 1947, was a retired German North Sea pilot schooner which the Johnsons rerigged as a brigantine. They then retired from circumnavigation and, in 1958-9, had the last ''Yankee'' built at Westhaven in Zaandam, the Netherlands. She was a steel ketch for sailing the inland waterways of Europe, designed by Irving Johnson and

Olin Stephens Olin James Stephens II (April 13, 1908 – September 13, 2008) was an American yacht designer. Stephens was born in New York City, but spent his summers with his brother Rod, learning to sail on the New England coast. He also attended the Mass ...

Sparkman & Stephens Sparkman & Stephens is a naval architecture and yacht brokerage firm with offices in Newport, Rhode Island and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA. The firm performs design and engineering of new and existing vessels for pleasure, commercial, and milit ...

. Many of the Johnsons' voyages have been documented in their own books and many articles and videos produced by the

National Geographic Society The National Geographic Society, headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest nonprofit scientific and educational organizations in the world. Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, natural sc ...

and others throughout their sailing career. With an amateur crew, they traveled hundreds of thousands of miles to the islands of the

South Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

, ports of call in Southeast Asia, around the

Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( ) is a rocky headland on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A List of common misconceptions#Geography, common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Afri ...

and home to

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city, non-metropolitan district and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West England, South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean ...

without incident 18 months later seven times.

World War II

Upon the urging of Bill Donovan, soon to be the head of the predecessor to the

OSS OSS or Oss may refer to: Places * Oss, a city and municipality in the Netherlands * Osh Airport, IATA code OSS People with the name * Oss (surname), a surname Arts and entertainment * ''O.S.S.'' (film), a 1946 World War II spy film about ...

, Johnson joined the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft ...

in 1941, and was at Pearl Harbor on the day of the attack. His knowledge of the

made him a natural choice to advise the Pacific Fleet on the

tide Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide tables ...

s, swells,

currents Currents, Current or The Current may refer to: Science and technology * Current (fluid), the flow of a liquid or a gas ** Air current, a flow of air ** Ocean current, a current in the ocean *** Rip current, a kind of water current ** Current (hy ...

, depths and

shoal In oceanography, geomorphology, and Earth science, geoscience, a shoal is a natural submerged ridge, bank (geography), bank, or bar that consists of, or is covered by, sand or other unconsolidated material, and rises from the bed of a body ...

s around the treacherous

reef A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral, or similar relatively stable material lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic component, abiotic (non-living) processes such as deposition (geol ...

s and

atoll An atoll () is a ring-shaped island, including a coral rim that encircles a lagoon. There may be coral islands or cays on the rim. Atolls are located in warm tropical or subtropical parts of the oceans and seas where corals can develop. Most ...

s of the South Seas. He was commissioned a Lieutenant Commander, and joined the USS ''Sumner'', finishing the war as her commanding officer. On board they created and printed five-color charts, scouted out potential harbours for US Navy vessels, and conducted underwater demolition to improve the suitability of some of the harbours. Johnson also dove on recently sunken Japanese vessels, searching for classified Japanese documents. One success was a chart of the minefields surrounding Japanese harbors.

Ashore

Johnson educated the public about the age of sail throughout his life, personally narrating showings of ''Around Cape Horn'' on board the ''

'' (docked at

South Street Seaport The South Street Seaport is a historic area in the New York City borough of Manhattan, centered where Fulton Street meets the East River, within the Financial District of Lower Manhattan. The Seaport is a designated historic district. It is p ...

in New York City from 1974-2016) and working with

Mystic Seaport Mystic Seaport Museum (founded as Marine Historical Association) is a maritime museum in Mystic, Connecticut, and the largest in the United States. Its site holds a collection of ships and boats and a re-creation of a 19th-century seaport vill ...

and the Sea Education Association, serving as a trustee of both until his death in 1991. The Los Angeles Maritime Institute has honored the Johnsons by naming their twin

brigantine A brigantine is a two-masted sailing vessel with a fully square-rigged foremast and at least two sails on the main mast: a square topsail and a gaff sail mainsail (behind the mast). The main mast is the second and taller of the two masts. Ol ...

s for use in their Topsail Youth program after them, '' Irving Johnson and Exy Johnson''. Exy Johnson oversaw the christening ceremonies of the vessels whose construction she was instrumental in until her death in 2004. Dr. Sheldon's experience on board the ill-fated brigantine ''

Albatross Albatrosses, of the biological family Diomedeidae, are large seabirds related to the procellariids, storm petrels, and diving petrels in the order Procellariiformes (the tubenoses). They range widely in the Southern Ocean and the North Paci ...

'' served as the basis for the film '' White Squall'' (1996). Capt. Johnson also mentored yachtsman Jim Stoll, who became one of the directors of the Flint School.

References

Books

* (reprinted as ) * * * * * * *

Articles

*Irving Johnson; ''Across the Atlantic in the "Shamrock V"'' (

Yachting Yachting is recreational boating activities using medium/large-sized boats or small ships collectively called yachts. Yachting is distinguished from other forms of boating mainly by the priority focus on comfort and luxury, the dependence on ma ...

, January 1931) *Irving Johnson; ''Discovering Islands'' (

, February 1935) *Irving and Electa Johnson; ''Westward Bound in the Yankee'' (

National Geographic Magazine ''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...

, January 1942) *Irving Johnson; ''Goodbye Pacific, Hello Maine'' (

, November 1945) *Irving Johnson; ''Adventures with the Survey Navy'' (National Geographic Magazine, January 1947) *Irving Johnson; ''England to Gloucester'' (

, May 1948) *Irving and Electa Johnson; ''The Yankee's Wander World'' (National Geographic Magazine, January 1949) *Irving and Electa Johnson. ''Yankee Roams the Orient'' (National Geographic Magazine, March 1951) *Irving and Electa Johnson; ''South Seas Incredible Land Divers'' (National Geographic Magazine, January 1955) *Irving and Electa Johnson; ''The New Yankee'' (Yachts and Yachting, October 10, 1958) *Irving and Electa Johnson; ''Lost World of the Galapagos'' (National Geographic Magazine, May 1959) *Irving and Electa Johnson; ''New Guinea to Bali in Yankee'' (National Geographic Magazine, December 1959) *Irving Johnson; ''The Ketch Yankee'' (

, August 1960) *Irving and Electa Johnson; ''Inside Europe Aboard Yankee'' (National Geographic Magazine, August 1964) *Irving and Electa Johnson; ''Yankee Cruises the Storied Nile'' (National Geographic Magazine, May 1965) *Irving Johnson; ''Getting Unstuck'' (

, January 1968) *Irving and Electa Johnson; ''Yankee Sails Turkey's History-Haunted Coast'' (National Geographic Magazine, December 1969) *Electa Johnson; ''Yankee Cruises Inland Italy: Part I'' (

, July 1973) *Electa Johnson; ''Yankee Cruises Inland Italy: Part II'' (

, August 1973)

Films

*''Yankee Sails Across Europe'' (National Geographic Society, 1967) *''Voyage of the Brigantine Yankee'' (National Geographic Society, 1968) *''Irving Johnson: High Seas Adventurer'' (National Geographic Society, 1985) *
Around Cape Horn
' (Mystic Seaport, 1985) (from original 16 mm footage shot by Irving Johnson, 1929) *''Unfurling the World: The Voyages of Irving and Electa Johnson'' (Mystic Seaport, 2012) {{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Irving 1905 births 1991 deaths People from Hadley, Massachusetts 20th-century American sailors American travel writers Circumnavigators of the globe Maritime writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American male writers American male non-fiction writers