Irving Johnson
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- The Tall ships Irving and Exy Johnson can be found at Irving Johnson (Tall ship)
Irving McClure Johnson (July 4, 1905 - January 2, 1991). Born in Hadley, Massachusetts, United States. Johnson was an author, adventurer and sail training pioneer.
Early home movies show a young Johnson training for a life at sea, climbing telephone poles in his backyard, and tells of wrestling to prepare for the inevitable fights he perceived would occur after reading the novels of Jack London and Joseph Conrad.
Johnson would work small boats near his home during the summers and join the Merchant Marine in 1926 serving on board various steamers and freighters. An amateur filmmaker, his footage on the barque Peking in 1929 would produce the now famous film Around Cape Horn.
Serving as mate on board the Wanderbird, Johnson would meet his future wife. Marrying Electa "Exy" Johnson (née Search) in 1933, the Johnsons would circumnavigate the world on board three different boats, all named Yankee, each trip with a new crew. The first of these was a brigantine-rigged retired North Sea pilot ship. The second a schooner, also a retired North Sea pilot. The last was the only one built by the Johnsons--a steel ketch designed for sailing the inland waterways of Europe and Africa.
Many of the Johnsons' voyages have been documented through their many articles, books and videos produced by National Geographic and others throughout their sailing career. With an amateur crew, they traveled hundreds of thousands of miles through the Panama Canal to the islands of the South Pacific, ports of call in Southeast Asia, around the Cape of Good Hope and home to Gloucester without incident 18 months later not once, but seven times over.
Irving joined the Navy, upon the urging of Bill Donovan, the head of the OSS, (Which later became the CIA.) prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor, and was on the base on that fateful day in 1941. His innate knowledge of the South Pacific making him a natural choice in advising the Pacific Fleet the intricacies of various tides, swells, currents, depths and shoals around the treacherous reefs and atolls of the South Seas. He was commissioned as a Leutenant Commander, and joined the USS Sumner, finishing the war as the commanding officer. They created and printed five color charts on board, scouted out potential harbours for US Navy vessels, and conducted underwater demolition to improve the suitability of some of the harbours. He also dove on recently sunken Japanese vessels, searching for classified Japanese documents which had not been destroyed before the vessel had sunk. One success was a chart of the minefields surrounding Japanese harbours.
Much as his colleague Alan Villiers, Johnson would continue to educate the public of the majestic age of sail throughout his life, personally narrating showings of Around Cape Horn on board the Peking, now docked at South Street Seaport in New York City and working with Mystic Seaport and the Sea Education Association, serving as a Trustee at these organizations until his death in 1991.
The Los Angeles Maritime Institute has recently honored Irving and Exy by naming their twin brigantines for use with their award winning Topsail Youth program after them.
The doyenne of modern sail training, Exy Johnson would personally oversee the christening ceremonies of the vessels she was instrumental in constructing prior to her death in 2004.
Former crew members of their voyages include actor Sterling Hayden and Dr. Christopher B. Sheldon. Dr. Sheldon's experience on board the ill-fated brigantine Albatross served as the basis for the movie White Squall (1996). Capt. Johnson also mentored yachtsman Jim Stoll, who became one of the directors of the Flint School.
[edit] Books
- Irving Johnson; Round the Horn in a Square Rigger (Milton Bradley, 1932) (reprinted as The Peking Battles Cape Horn (Sea History Press, 1977 ISBN 0-930248-02-3)
- Irving Johnson; Shamrock V's Wild Voyage Home (Milton Bradley, 1933)
- Irving and Electa Johnson; Westward bound in the schooner Yankee (Norton, 1936)
- Irving and Electa Johnson; Sailing to see; picture cruise in the schooner Yankee (Norton, 1939)
- Irving and Electa Johnson; Yankee's wander world; circling the globe in the brigantine Yankee (Norton, 1949)
- Irving Johnson, Electa Johnson and Lydia Edes; Yankee's people and places (Norton, 1955)
- Irving and Electa Johnson; Yankee sails across Europe (Norton, 1962)
- Irving and Electa Johnson; Yankee sails the Nile (Norton, 1966)
[edit] Articles
- Irving and Electa Johnson; Westward Bound in the Yankee (National Geographic Magazine, January 1942)
- Irving Johnson; Adventures with the Survey Navy (National Geographic Magazine, January 1947)
- Irving and Electa Johnson; The Yankee's Wander-world (National Geographic Magazine, January 1949)
- 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 (Yachting, 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 and Electa Johnson; Yankee Sails Turkey's History-Haunted Coast (National Geographic Magazine, December 1969)
- Electa Johnson; Yankee Cruises Inland Italy: Part I (Yachting, July 1973)
- Electa Johnson; Yankee Cruises Inland Italy: Part II (Yachting, August 1973)
[edit] 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)
