*Throughout this account, the first occurrence of a member’s name in the

text is indicated by bold type.

Yachting Monthly, November 1953

‘In order that a record may be kept of long

distance voyages in small craft, I suggest

that an ocean cruising club be formed. The

members can be of any nationality and the

only qualification need be amateur status and

a port to port passage of not less than 1000

miles in a vessel of, say, not more than 65ft

LOA. The subscription should be nominal – say

10s.6d. a year, and there should be a general

meeting and dinner once a year in London in

the winter. If all those interested in

forming such a club would write to me, I will

arrange a meeting in November or December.’

4 Quay Hill

Lymington, HantsHumphrey Barton

In 1949 Humphrey Barton (Hum)* was invited by Jack Rawlings* to skipper

his radical new Laurent Giles-designed aluminium ocean racer, Gulvain, in the

1950 Bermuda and Transatlantic races. The boat was to be shipped to New

York but Hum eschewed the steamer passage and, as he put it, somewhat

tongue in cheek, decided to buy a new boat, sail her to America and sell her to

‘help the export drive’. He was then a well-known surveyor for Laurent Giles

and Partners and had also earned a name as an intrepid sailor, having won the

coveted Royal Cruising Club Challenge Cup for a pre-war passage in the now

famous Dyarchy. He had sailed thousands of miles on yacht deliveries and ocean

races but had not made an ocean passage of any great length.

Hum’s pocket and time were both short, but fortunately he learned that Elkins

of Christchurch were building a Laurent Giles designed 25ft Vertue class boat,

the thirty-fifth of that enduring line of tough little yachts. He snapped her up

and was thus committed to his venture, but how many would-be ocean sailors

over the years have shared the feelings that he then admits to – alternately

thrilled and appalled at the prospect of his first ocean crossing.

Some years earlier he had done a survey for a young man named Tim Heywood

who had bought a dilapidated fishing boat. They became friends and

subsequently Tim helped Hum with several yacht deliveries and crewed him on

many offshore races. Tim was Hum’s first choice of crew for the Atlantic

venture but he had to cry off at the last minute due to illness. Instead Hum took

the charming but garrulous Irishman, Kevin O’Riordan, affectionately known

as KOR. He turned out to be the ideal crew, quite imperturbable and one who

enjoyed himself most when conditions were at their worst. He was an

experienced sailor but his greatest claim to fame was having rowed a dinghy

round the Isle of Wight, such was the measure of his toughness. Tim recovered

in time to join Hum in Gulvain to race back across the Atlantic, thus cementing

a life-long friendship. Also aboard Gulvain was an 18-year-old American by the

name of Harvey Loomis who, with the summer off between school and

university, was setting out on his first ocean crossing.

Pressure of time forced Hum and KOR to take the low-powered steamer

route and, since Hum was committed to meeting Gulvain at the beginning of

June, he had to leave earlier than was wise in such a small boat. They had an

uneventful passage but with a preponderance of strong headwinds until they

approached the Gulf Stream, 44 days out. They then got caught in a very deep

depression which brewed up winds of hurricane force, and the boat suffered a

bad knockdown which split the coachroof from end to end (see illustration

page 8). Three days later they groped their way into New York harbour in fog

and sailed their brave little engineless boat up the East River to City Island,

arriving half an hour before Gulvain.

The story of the crossing has been enshrined in the classic book Vertue XXXV,

also published in the United States under the title Westward Crossing. It contains

some delightful vignettes that contrast so starkly with ocean sailing today. While

on passage down Channel they heard of their progress on the BBC news, and

such was the rarity of their voyage that they were able to inveigle bonded

stores – against customs regulations as they were less than 40 tons. Later they

closed Prawle Point and hoisted a message to Lloyd’s Signal Station, and they

never failed to make a flag signal to any passing ship so that their progress was

regularly reported to Lloyd’s of London. Yet, despite the brave nature of the

adventure that led directly to the formation of the Ocean Cruising Club, Hum

admits to feelings which many an ocean sailor keeps in his heart, that ‘The ideal

cruise requires a good yacht, pleasant company, and a strange coast with plenty

of islands and rocks’.

While there had been a smattering of ocean crossings before the Second World

War, the austerity of post-war Britain put the damper on deep-sea cruising for

some years thereafter. Materials were scarce, money was short and food rationing

made it almost impossible to victual a yacht for a long passage. There was also the

danger of mines, which made for dull coastal sailing if you followed the swept

channels and markedly less dull if you didn’t. Only the most persistent were

intrepid enough to brave both the rigours of the ocean and the strictures of

finance, with the consequence that most of their boats were minute by present

day standards. Hum wished to show, and certainly did, that it was the design of a

yacht rather than its size which made it suitable for ocean sailing. His little Vertue,

with a waterline length of only 21ft, had had the wind ahead of the beam for most

of the voyage and yet she averaged 3 knots. And such was her toughness that she

weathered a hurricane and still carried on despite considerable structural damage.

After the 84 day crossing of John Buckley in 1870 in a converted 20ft ship’s

boat, the 79 day passage by Frederick Norman in the 16ft Little Western in

1881, and Ole Brude’s remarkable 49 day crossing in the 18ft Vraad in 1904,

Vertue XXXV was the next recorded boat to make a non-stop east-to-west

crossing by the northern route, and was by far the fastest.

Paradoxically, the OCC was born more of racing than cruising. While there

was a dearth of ocean cruising boats, by contrast, ocean racing got off to an

early start after the war. The reason for this may be that those who could

afford to race could not afford the considerably longer time involved in ocean

cruising. Also a number of racing boats were either club-owned or run by the

Services and not available for extended cruising. Of course the restrictions

caused by the war had nothing like the same debilitating effect on post-war

sailing in America, where there was also a much longer tradition of long distance

sailing. Yachts had been racing to Bermuda since 1913, and the Transpac Race

had been held for many years. They were also much better placed geographically

than the British, with a 1000 mile littoral with the Pacific, which generally lived

up to its name, and a similar shoreline facing the North Atlantic. The latter

favoured the deep-sea passage makers, with a weather shore from which to

make their offing and both the Gulf Stream and the Westerlies to help them on

their passage.

So in 1950 it was a much more experienced US racing fleet that came to the

line for the Bermuda Race. With them were Gulvain with Hum as skipper, and

two much smaller British boats which had also been shipped across and which

were to make their mark on ocean racing in the way that Hum did on cruising.

They were the 31ft Samuel Pepys, skippered by that hard racing man Erroll

Bruce, and Cohoe owned and skippered by the equally hard driver, Adlard

Coles. Cohoe had been slightly shorter, but had had her bow extended in order

to comply with the minimum permitted length of 30ft. Laurent Giles were

anxious to know how their new boat had fared on her first race, so Hum wired

them from Bermuda: ‘No mistakes, no mishaps, came third’. The Royal Ocean

Racing Club (RORC) had organised a transatlantic race to follow the Bermuda

race, but only five boats came to the line, including the three from Britain. The

crews of these three yachts, and those of four of the five boats which entered

the next transatlantic race in 1952, were to become founder members of the

OCC almost to a man.

Within a year or two of Vertue XXXV’s crossing there began a trickle of little

boats cruising the oceans. Indeed, one sage prophesied that by the mid-50s

there would be up to six yachts a year crossing the Atlantic. Hum set about

collecting statistics of all known transatlantic crossings, which resulted in his

most interesting book, Atlantic Adventurers, published in 1953. There is little

doubt that this analysis turned his thoughts to the formation of a club for ocean

sailors and it is known that his first idea was to form a ‘transatlantic’ club. However

he soon realised that to restrict it to those who had crossed the Atlantic would

exclude many who had made equally remarkable voyages in other oceans, so he

settled on a minimum distance of 1000 nautical miles, which stands to this day. He

later decided on a maximum length of 70ft, since several of his friends had recently

crossed in Latifa of that length and he did not wish to exclude them.

Hum’s next step was to write to the English and American yachting magazines

inviting anyone who qualified and wished to join such a fraternity to contact

him. To his surprise he received about 40 replies, and admits that he was at a

loss to know what to do next until he discussed his project with his old friend

and racing rival, Adlard Coles, who suggested a meeting at the Royal Naval

Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) Club in London. Hum booked a room there for 27

January 1954 inviting all those who had replied, and again advertised in the

yachting press. He also invited the editor of The Daily Telegraph as he felt that

the possible formation of such a club would have national interest.

Some 30 people expressed an intention to come to the meeting but in the

event 23 turned up. The editor of Yachting World, Teddy Haylock, came along,

as did the sub-editor of the Telegraph. Hum made his proposals along the lines

that he had outlined in his invitation and, not surprisingly, these were unanimously

agreed. Eight folk volunteered to form a committee and a ballot was held to

decide on flag officers. Hum had studied the rules of several of the clubs of

which he was a member and gleaned what he thought suitable for his proposed

club. These he produced as a draft, pending committee examination, and they

turned out to be remarkably prescient as most of them stand to this day. At first

it was considered that no subscription would be necessary, but then it was

realised that there would inevitably be small secretarial expenses so a sum of £1

per annum was agreed. The question of a burgee was discussed and someone

suggested a flying fish. Colin Mudie, being a naval architect, was invited to

design one for the Committee’s approval. On his way home to Lymington Hum

met his friend Mostyn Williams who until recently had been the secretary of

the Royal Lymington Yacht Club (RLymYC). Without hesitation, and with very

little idea what he was taking on, Mostyn agreed to become the secretary of the

new club and carried those duties voluntarily for the next three years. Thus,

within the space of a few hours the club had a committee and flag officers, a

secretary, 23 members, and almost a burgee.

The meeting is perhaps best summed up by Teddy Haylock, who gave the

new club a whole page in the next edition of Yachting World:

‘A MEETING was called at the RNVR Club on January 27 at the

instigation of Humphrey Barton, with the object of forming a club,

the membership of which should be confined to yachtsmen who

had sailed across oceans. Some thirty people who could be traced

were invited and a good many of them turned up. The club was

formed and membership was restricted to those who have made

a port-to-port ocean passage of not less than 1,000 miles in a

vessel of not more than 70ft in overall length. The annual

subscription was to be £1 or, if paid by banker’s order, ten

shillings. The club has no premises and its objects are the

encouragement of ocean cruising in small craft, to keep a record

of long voyages made by members, and to publish accounts of

them from time to time. It is also intended to collect information

likely to be of use, to encourage the formation of branches all

over the world and to appoint local representatives. Thus, a

member sailing into some harbour half-way across the Pacific

would be met by a friend and all his wants attended to. There

was some doubt as to the name, which has not been settled.

Most seemed in favour of ‘The Ocean Cruising Club’, but I feel

that it is too near such things as ‘The Royal Cruising Club’ or ‘The

Royal Ocean Racing Club’. Perhaps ‘The Ocean Voyagers Club’

might be more appropriate. There was talk of a club tie and a

burgee, and all sorts of designs were considered.

While the meeting was on a very smartly dressed woman

slipped into the chair beside me, to my astonishment it was none

other than Ann Davison, who that morning had flown over from

the U.S.A. She looked very fit and had been made much of in the

States; but the adulation seemed to have made little difference

to this quiet, modest and altogether charming person. I talked to

Ben and Elinor Carlin, the former an Australian and the latter

an American with one of those soft drawling voices. They crossed

the Atlantic in Half Safe, an amphibious jeep. I cannot help feeling

that they are lucky to have survived. They told me that they

proposed to continue on round the world. For their sakes I hope

they will manage to dodge the Pacific. Lt. Cmdr. Hamilton, who

recently wrote on his voyage in a Vertue from Singapore to

Portsmouth, was there and W. B. Howell, who crossed the Atlantic

in Wanderer II with a companion and sailed on into the Pacific,

bringing his little four-tonner eventually into Vancouver after 7,000

miles single-handed. I nearly forgot to say that Hum Barton,

who will be remembered for his remarkable voyage from

Lymington to New York in Vertue XXXV, has been elected

Commodore. Lt. Col. (Dick) Scholfield became Vice-

Commodore having qualified for membership seven times over,

and Colin Mudie, who crossed the Atlantic in Sopranino and

returned in Bloodhound, was elected Rear-Commodore. I was

pleased to see a young man still in his twenties elected to flag

rank, after all, wasn’t William Pitt made Prime Minister at the ripe

old age of 24?’

The founding of the club was widely reported, so those who had missed the

first trawl had the opportunity to catch up. To be fair to these, and the several

who were at sea on 27 January, it was decided at the first committee meeting

that anyone who was qualified, and who applied to join within three months of

the inaugural meeting, would be deemed a Founder Member.

Hum had also spread the word in the US through the columns of Yachting

magazine, of which Alf Loomis, the father of Harvey who had raced transatlantic

with Hum in Gulvain, was a sub-editor. Alf wrote to his son Harvey:

‘New York

February 24th 1954

Dear Harve,

Hum Barton has organised and is the commodore  of

a new little club called the Ocean Cruising Club. Dick

Scholfield is Vice and Colin Mudie Rear and

yours very truly is the No 1 American member. Hum

sent me a few application blanks for distribution to

eligibles, and I am so doing also mentioning

it in the ‘Longboat’ (an occasional column Yachting) in April.

Dues are £1 per year ($2.8).

Thought you might be interested so enclose a blank.

I’ve sent blanks to Giff (Dr Gifford Pinchot) and

Rod (Rod Stephens) for a starter. Sounds like a nice,

inexpensive idea.’

The decision to name the new club ‘The Ocean Cruising Club’ was made at the

first committee meeting on 15 February, after a postal ballot of members who

had signed up at the inaugural meeting. Four possible names were tabled: Blue

Water Club, Deep Sea Club, Deep Sea Cruising Club and Ocean Cruising Club,

the last winning by a large margin. It is interesting to note that by 24 February

Alf Loomis in New York knew of the name, so clearly Hum was not slow in

spreading the word. Alf kept his promise and gave the club a good send off in

the next issue of Yachting:

Under the Lee of the Long Boat, by  SPUN YARN

‘ANNOUNCEMENT has been made of the formation in England of

the Ocean Cruising Club, and as it sounds like a good idea, I

take pleasure in giving it a little boost. Membership will be open

to and, in fact, restricted to, those sailors of either sex, of any

nationality, who have cruised or raced on any ocean a distance

of 1000 miles between ports in a sail or motor boat not more

than 70 feet overall. The club starts off under excellent auspices,

with Hum Barton, who brought Vertue XXXV to America a few

years ago, as Commodore; with Dick Scholfield, a Royal Artillery

type who sailed his R.N.S.A. 24 Blue Disa in the B.A.–Rio race of

1950 as Vice Commodore, and with Colin Mudie, of Sopranino

fame, as Rear. Hum asked me to get in touch with American

eligibles to inform them of this unique club, but when I had written

down from memory the names of nearly a hundred sailors who

have covered more than a thousand miles of blue water voyaging

I came to the conclusion that publicity in this space would be as

effective and a whole lot less trouble than writing a host of personal

letters. Dues in the OCC are one pound ($2.00) a year and

application blanks may be obtained from Commodore Humphrey

D. E. Barton, 4 Quay Hill, Lymington, Hampshire, England.

Applicants accepted before April 27th will be listed as founder

members. Take it away, Hum, and see how you like writer’s cramp.’

Alf was already well qualified to join the embryonic club as he had crossed the

Atlantic as early as 1928, and later, although it wouldn’t have qualified, he

Vertue XXXV from an oil painting by Glanville

navigated the J Class Yankee across for a summer of racing in the Solent. More

recently he had crewed his friend William Blunt White Senior, when they

won the 1953 Buenos Aires to Rio race in Blunt’s 46ft S&S yawl White Mist.

Apparently the President of the Argentine, Juan Peron, had offered to ship

some New York Yacht Club (NYYC) boats to BA gratis as a goodwill gesture,

and Blunt was one of the lucky chosen. They were received in the ‘Pink House’,

the Argentinean equivalent of the White House, and Blunt replied to the President’s

welcoming speech in schoolboy Spanish which brought the house down with

its inadvertent howlers. Not very graciously they went on to win the race,

beating the scratch boat, the Argentine Navy’s 72ft yawl Vandeval, and several

other large Argentinean vessels. Alf later invited Blunt to bring his crew along to

the NYYC for a meeting to discuss the possibility of becoming part of this

putative club for ocean sailors.

Another competitor in that 1953 race was Hilario Corralis who was on the

staff of the Brazilian yachting magazine, Yachting Brasileiro. He doubtless heard

of the formation of the OCC through his magazine contacts as he became the

only Brazilian Founder Member. There is still only one Brazilian in the current

list.

A meeting in New York duly took place with most of the crew of White Mist

attending. Alf himself, Blunt, brothers Walter and Richard Flower, Carleton

Mitchell, and Ducky Endt. Such was the camaraderie in those early days of

ocean sailing that without much knowledge of what they were letting themselves

in for all but one of them signed up, and thus, as in England, it was a group of

racing men who became the nucleus of the OCC in the US. Ducky Endt was

the exception, which is a pity as he was a contemporary of Sherman Hoyt and

the Stephens brothers and quite a star of East Coast racing.

Of the 23 who attended the London meeting, many had already become

household names in the small tightly knit deep-sea sailing community. Several

had written books on their exploits, while others had gone quietly about the

oceans unsung. It must be remembered that those were the days when blue

water sailing boats were so few that one altered course to hail another yacht,

and you failed to salute a passing of a man-of-war at your peril. It is not surprising,

therefore, that Hum knew most of those who were qualified before the meeting

took place, many of them being fellow offshore racers. Most of the great and

the good had joined with enthusiasm and the list of those deemed to be Founders

reads like a Who’s Who of yachting names. The worldwide trawl, which had

brought in a total of 86 from 13 countries, is reproduced in full in Appendix

XXX (page XXX). However it would be appropriate to expound on some of

the people who had such an influence on the subsequent development of the

club and, indeed, on ocean sailing as a whole throughout the world.