''Tinkerbelle'' is a

sailboat A sailboat or sailing boat is a boat propelled partly or entirely by sails and is smaller than a sailing ship. Distinctions in what constitutes a sailing boat and ship vary by region and maritime culture. Types Although sailboat terminology ...

in which 47-year-old newspaperman Robert Manry, a

copy editor Copy editing (also known as copyediting and manuscript editing) is the process of revising written material (" copy") to improve quality and readability, as well as ensuring that a text is free of errors in grammar, style, and accuracy. ''The Ch ...

at the

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

Plain Dealer ''The Plain Dealer'' is the major newspaper of Cleveland, Ohio; it is a major national newspaper. In the fall of 2019, it ranked 23rd in U.S. newspaper circulation, a significant drop since March 2013, when its circulation ranked 17th daily a ...

'', single-handedly crossed the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

in 1965. At the time, it was the shortest but not the smallest boat to cross the Atlantic nonstop (till today the smallest is Lindemann's folding kayak). He left

Falmouth, Massachusetts Falmouth ( ) is a New England town, town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 32,517 at the 2020 census, making Falmouth the second-largest municipality on Cape Cod after Barnstable, Massachusetts, Barnstable. T ...

on June 1 and arrived in

Falmouth, Cornwall Falmouth ( ; ) is a town, civil parish and port on the River Fal on the south coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. Falmouth was founded in 1613 by the Killigrew family on a site near the existing Pendennis Castle. It developed as a po ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

78 days later, greeted by an armada of small boats and a huge crowd. Mayor Samuel A. Hooper of Falmouth officially welcomed him at the town's Custom House Quay. Robert Manry's wife Virginia and his children, Robin and Douglas, were also there, having been flown in from

Willowick, Ohio Willowick is a city in Lake County, Ohio, United States, on Lake Erie. The population was 14,204 at the 2020 census. A suburb of Cleveland, Willowick is served by a branch of the Willoughby-Eastlake Public Library. The city's name is a portman ...

. During the voyage Manry was knocked overboard by big waves, suffered from

hallucination A hallucination is a perception in the absence of an external stimulus that has the compelling sense of reality. They are distinguishable from several related phenomena, such as dreaming ( REM sleep), which does not involve wakefulness; pse ...

s, repaired a broken

rudder A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, airship, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (usually air or water). On an airplane, the rudder is used primarily to counter adverse yaw ...

in mid-ocean, and was woken up one morning by a surfacing

submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or infor ...

, USS ''Tench'' (SS-417). Manry later wrote about the voyage and its preparation in his book ''Tinkerbelle''. ''Tinkerbelle'', a little wooden Old Town "Whitecap" sailboat, was originally built by the Old Town Canoe Co. of

Old Town, Maine Old Town is a city in Penobscot County, Maine, United States. The population was 7,431 at the 2020 census. The city's developed area is chiefly located on the relatively large Marsh Island, but its boundaries extend beyond it. The island is su ...

. Manry extensively modified her himself for the voyage by adding a cabin and more seaworthy

cockpit A cockpit or flight deck is the area, on the front part of an aircraft, spacecraft, or submersible, from which a pilot controls the vehicle. The cockpit of an aircraft contains flight instruments on an instrument panel, and the controls th ...

. Tinkerbelle's official registration number painted on her bow was OH 7013 AR. At the Museum

''Tinkerbelle'' is on display indoors at the

Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum The Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum is a transportation museum in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is part of the Western Reserve Historical Society's Cleveland History Center in University Circle, and its collection includes about 170 cars. It ...

in Cleveland, Ohio. Nearby the real ''Tinkerbelle'' is provided a replica into which children can crawl.

References

Bibliography

*
Tinkerbelle
' (Harper and Row, New York 1966; Collins, London 1967) {{OCLC, 1497771

External links

The Robert Manry Project
1965 ships Individual sailing vessels Single-handed sailing