Douglas Dixon (top left) and the motley crew of ageing volunteers who safely delivered one of many American-built fleet tenders across the Atlantic in 1943, to a desperately equipment-starved Great Britain. The chestful of medals is worn by Admiral Sir Herbert Meade Fetherstonhaugh GCVO CB DSO RN, House of Lords Sergeant at Arms and nearing 70 at the time of these perilous voyages. There were also two colonels aboard, two dentists, one with the Military Cross and an ex RAF Squadron Leader. Most were over 60


crossing the Atlantic they had used 75 gallons but the Fastnet took 85 and they were reduced to slaking their thirst with the juice of tinned fruit. At the finish there was less than one pint of water left. Amberjack’s Boston owner Paul Rust


told the press that he had never experi- enced such rough weather, adding proudly, ‘Amberjack stood up to the buf- feting wonderfully well: she did not lose a sail or break a spar – in fact, the only thing we broke was an egg!’ Dixon added that for a race of supposedly just over 600 miles they had logged 890. The cook, Tom Davis, was declared the


hero of the hour. Despite it being his first yachting experience he had served the crew with hot drinks while bailing for hours on end, nursing bruised ribs.


Buried treasure Douglas must have been drawn to unusual schemes, for 1935 found him in court with another fantastical story. It seems Captain CWA Arthur and his wife, Alice, had sailed from Lowestoft in search of treasure amounting to £25,000,000, supposedly buried by pirates on Cocos Island. Capt Arthur was one of the directors of the firm Treasure Recovery. Douglas had sum- monsed Arthur for the recovery of 22 pounds, one shilling and thruppence. The debt had been incurred two years


earlier when he had been engaged to sail with them on their vessel Veracity for an earlier version of the adventure, only to be put ashore at Fowey, with the defendant refusing to take him any further. After this Capt Arthur was described as having been ‘elusive’. By accident Dixon had caught up with him in Lowestoft, and hastily issued the summons to reclaim his money. Judge Rowlands suggested that if the captain returned with his pockets filled


with treasure there would be no trouble with payment. Mr Boycott, appearing for Douglas, said he would prefer a judge- ment. The case was adjourned to allow time for the treasure to be located… Six months on, when they reconvened,


it was made clear the debt was partly a loan and partly payments made by Douglas on behalf of the defendant, who was now expected to be away for a further year. The judge asked if the treasure had been found, as otherwise there would be little chance of anyone getting anything. It appeared the captain was in Panama and it would cost him more than £22 to fly home to settle his debt. The case was adjourned once more. Capt Arthur must have returned, but


empty-handed, for in 1936 he reportedly set off for Cocos again, accompanied by a Belgian engineer, Bergmans, who had been shipwrecked on the island in 1929, and brought some of the treasure home, selling it in New York for over £11,000. The two men sailed on the liner Tanui, with a suit- case of secret plans and charts, although the Belgian was very nervous because apparently American gangsters had threat- ened his life. Understandably Douglas does not seem to have pursued the case further.


Lodgers in Lapland The next adventure was some years in the planning. Douglas and his wife, both writers, wanted to undertake a spectacular voyage that they could write about: through the Kiel Canal and up the Baltic shore to Tornio, then to Sápmi, which Douglas knew as Lapland, to pass the winter living with the indigenous Sámi people. The ship was Daisy, a 13-ton West Mercia Oyster Dredger, built by Aldous of Brightlingsea in 1884; she was renamed Dusmarie, an amalgamation of their first names. Dusmarie was Marie’s wedding present


to Douglas, and the cost of the conversion was her fiancé’s return gift. They were married aboard on Midsummer Day 1933 and intended to make her their home. She was ‘37ft from straight stem to


counter, 32ft 6in on the waterline’, with what Douglas termed a ‘straightforward old-fashioned gaff cutter rig, fiddled top- mast and reefing bowsprit’. She had no engine. The couple sailed under the burgee of the Royal Ocean Racing Club, deter- mined to boldly go and accomplish things that had never been done before. After leaving Burnham in May 1937


Dusmarie bore her adventurous owners back to England in the late summer of the following year. Douglas was feted as ‘a man to whom thrills come as an everyday experience… with wanderlust in his veins’. Their voyage had been packed with


incident. They were nearly arrested off the Prussian coast, where boats were required to keep 10 miles offshore because of Ger- man Naval manoeuvres. In fact, they sailed into port just as the warships were coming out, but were regarded with suspi- cion and confined to their yacht. Had the authorities learned of Douglas and Marie’s earlier voyage through the German Frisian Islands, following Erskine Childers’ Dulci- bella course from the famous Riddle of the Sands espionage novel, they might have been in much hotter water. Another World War was brewing, after all. They eventually left Dusmarie at Lulea,


in northern Sweden, travelling by train, motor and the last 10 miles on skis, to reach the Sámi nomads who they asked for shelter. Initially one night was agreed, but this stretched until they were adopted by the tribe, moving up and down the moun- tain with them for four months. With temperatures often dipping below -40°, their breath froze in their nostrils and 


SEAHORSE 57


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