50 years ago this week Brigantine Romance was at Pitcairn Island! One of the highlights of my life. We had spent several days at Henderson Island assisting the Pitcairn people harvesting the Miro wood trees, loading up the deck with the logs & branches. They had come out 100 or so miles to Henderson in one of their powered longboats, and Romance towed the oar powered longboat to Henderson. They set up a sailcloth sheltered camp on shore for the several days, and us Romance crew rotated staying ashore with them and helping to drag the Miro wood alongside the beach to piles by the camp, where the oar powered longboat was loaded up to take the wood out to Romance. We helped in rowing the longboat also. I think there were 5 rows of oars! I still have a cassette tape of the sounds of rowing the boat out to the ship, and back ashore through the surf break. In the evening at the camp they sang their hymns while relaxing after dinner, laying out on the sand. I have some of that on a cassette tape as well. With the sounds of the surf in the background while they sang, it was a magical moment that still brings tears to my eyes! (the tapes I have are copied from Peter Damon's or Randy Jones' recorded tapes). With a deck full of miro wood, we motored back to Pitcairn overnight, towing the oar powered longboat. Christmas dinner was a potluck community affair at the church. Everybody on the island, 60 or so at that time, was there plus the Romance complement, about 18 or so. There was a LOT of food! We all ate well, and even though they are vegetarians (Seventh Day Adventist), at Christmas dinner there is also chicken and wild caught goat. It was all so delicious! I don't remember what Gloria and Bruce Fisher (the cook) turned out from Romance's galley. When we left Pitcairn, most of the people came out to Romance to see us off, bringing gifts, fruit, vegetables, and lobsters!, all of which nearly filled up the secondary shore launch on deck! After the many goodbyes they all got back aboard their longboat and cast off, they sang to us the traditional Pitcairn farewell: "Sweet Bye & Bye", "Let the Lower Lights Be Burning", and the Pitcairn 'farewell song'. (I have all that on a cassette tape as well). Not a dry eye on board Romance! It all was an amazing experience, Christmas on Pitcairn 50 years ago! Cheers! Bob Wallace
Probably my several years in the Sea Scouts up on the Chesapeake Bay helped get me selected as a crewman. My plan was to do the trip around the world, then get back on the railroad. But blue water sailing was even more fun than working on the railroad (though the railroad paid a heck of a lot more!). After the Romance voyage, I went on to work on other square rig and traditional schooners, then onto 'regular' sailboats, motor sailors, private yachts, etc. over the decades ever since (but always sail, no power boats).
I never did get back to working on the railroad, but if I sailed anywhere there's train service, I'd go take a train trip! Now I've 'thrown my anchor ashore' (literally, the anchor from my last paid yacht job is hanging on a tree in my front yard!). The walls, floors, and ceilings of my house are covered with souvenirs & photos of the many places I've been and the boats that took me there. It's been a grand journey! Many, many thanks to the Kimberly's! Cheers! Bob Wallace
Freight trains, not passenger trains. I had found out about this little square rigger going to sail around the world. That sounded interesting, so that Summer I did one of their '8 days Virgin Islands cruise' and found out more about the world trip. I thought I could take off from the railroad, do the world trip, and then get back with the railroad. It was going to be my life's career as far as I was concerned! The guys I worked with thought I was crazy: "you're going to work on a boat and not get paid, but you have to pay THEM?!"
Anyway, sailing around the world was even more fun than working on the railroad! So I never got back to the railroad, and just stayed with sailing! Ended up doing 2 more circumnavigations ('83-'85 and 2000-2005) as well! I still remember sitting on the deck of Romance at night in St. George's, Grenada, wondering 'what have I got myself into. I had the best job in the world.'
But I think I made the right choice. Otherwise I probably would have a Georgia wife, some bratty Georgia kids, a Georgia accent, and become adept at bass fishing! (and probably go on a vacation to Florida: "Wowee! Look at those big sailboats! I wonder where they're going?!"). Uh, no. I think I chose well! Cheers! B0B
I just found your "Brigantine Romance" website and I love it! I was a lowly deckhand on the circumnavigation of '75-'77 and cherish the memories. It was a fantastic trip! I had been in the Sea Scouts so I had a basic knowledge of sailing and the knots and stuff but that was my first blue water experience. I quit the best job, my life's career as far as I was concerned: I was(and still am) a train fan and I was a trainman for seaboard coastline railroad working out of Miami. I had 2 1/2 years seniority and quit to go sailing! My fellow workers thought I was crazy. "You are going to pay to work on a boat?"! That was the start of a long career at sea.
I am still sailing now. After a few years on tallships and schooners (Pride of Baltimore, Lindo) I moved on to private yachts and now am on my 3rd circumnavigation! I was engineer on a 94' ketch that was then donated to a whale research organization. I stayed on and am now on a round the world voyage studying sperm whales. Look us up on the pbs website to see what I am up to: pbs.org and click on the "voyage of the odyssey".
I am in Darwin, Australia presently and the "Picton Castle" has just passed through. Her captain is Dan Moreland who was the mate on Romance's '75-'77 world trip as well as long-time crewman on their Virgin Islands tourist trips. I haven't seen Dan since '86. Also, on a chance meeting on the dock here I met Doug Hazleton, a crew member from the '68 trip to the Galapagos. We had a grand time trading "Romance" tales! He is running a boat slowly making its way around the world, left the Caribbean 6 years ago!
A question I have, Gloria and one of the mates, Randy Jones, did a lot of filming with bolex 16 mm movie cameras. Did a film or video ever get put together of the world trip? I have written the Kimberlys in past years but they never said.
Again, thanks for a great website. it gives the Brigantine Romance proper credit and respect.
Bob Wallace
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