She landed in Dominica on Jan. 24, 1953, formally ending her eight-month-long journey and cementing her standing as a crusing pioneer. “She Conquered the Atlantic,” one newspaper headline proclaimed.
Her e-book “My Ship Is So Small,” revealed in 1956, acquired optimistic opinions. (Her first e-book, “Final Voyage,” which chronicled her ill-fated 1949 crusing journey, had additionally been nicely obtained.) However after just a few years, Davison’s story was principally forgotten. When she appeared in 1962 on the sport present “To Inform the Reality,” by which three folks declare to be the identical notable particular person, not one of the celeb judges had heard of her; just one accurately guessed who she was.
Davison was dwelling in Florida by then and had married Bert Billheimer, a former Miami Herald photographer. The 2 shared an curiosity in boats, and a 1960 journey they took via the Everglades, throughout which they traveled by motorboat and took images of wildlife, was the topic of a New York Instances article.
Davison had offered the Felicity Ann and, by all accounts, by no means went on one other solo crusing expedition. “I knew what single-handed crusing was like now,” she wrote in “My Ship Is So Small.” “The expertise was full.”
In 1990, when Cruising World journal tracked Davison down after inducting her into its Corridor of Fame, she and Billheimer not owned any boats and had been dwelling in relative obscurity on a ranch in Lorida, Fla., the place they bred unique cats.
Davison died on Could 12, 1992. She was 78. A short dying discover appeared in The Tampa Tribune, but it surely didn’t point out her trans-Atlantic crossing, and there have been no obituaries in mainstream newspapers in america. Her books had been out of print, and he or she appeared destined to be remembered as a footnote, if that.
Just lately, although, Davison’s sailboat was rediscovered after passing via a number of personal homeowners, and it was restored by the Northwest Faculty of Wood Boatbuilding and the Neighborhood Boat Venture in Washington State, which now use it to advertise girls’s empowerment via crusing classes and different actions. Moreover, a home in England the place she lived together with her first husband was given a plaque and named a nationwide landmark for traditionally vital locations in 2017.
Davison will not be a traditional function mannequin: She wasn’t a talented or devoted sailor, and the feat she completed was arguably reckless. However, as Alfred Ames wrote in a evaluation of her e-book in The Chicago Tribune in 1956, “Braveness comparable to hers, used to no matter ends, deserves respectful consideration.”
Supply: NY Times
