Sir Francis Chichester (September 17, 1901 – August 26, 1972), aviator and sailor, was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for becoming the first person to sail single-handed around the world by the clipper route, and the fastest circumnavigator, in nine months and one day.
He was born in Barnstaple, Devon, England, and aged 18, he emigrated to New Zealand, where in ten years he built up a prosperous business in forestry mining and property devlopment, only to suffer severe losses in the Great Depression. He also learned to fly. He returned to England in 1929 to visit family and take delivery of a de Havilland Gipsy Moth aircraft, which he intended to fly to New Zealand, breaking Bert Hinkler’s record solo flight back to Australia en route. Mechanical problems meant the record eluded him, however her completed the trip in 41 days. Finding he was unable to carry enough fuel to cross the Tasman directly, he had his Gipsy Moth fitted with floats, and went on to make the first solo flight across the Tasman Sea from East to West becoming the first aircraft to land at Norfolk Island and Lord Howe Island. Again the trip was delayed, after his aircraft was severely damaged, he had to rebuild it himself, with the help of islanders. He was awarded the inaugral Johnson Memorial Trophy for this trip.
Chichester then decided to cirumnavigate the world solo. Borrowing a pair of floats from the New Zealand Permanent Air Force he made it to Japan; but on take off from Katsuura Harbour Wakayama collided with an overhead cable, sustaining serious injuries.
Chichester enlisted at the outbreak of World War II, serving in the U.K. as a navigation expert. At the end of the war he stayed in the United Kingdom. He purchased 15,000 surplus Air Ministry maps, initially pasting them on board and making jig saws, but eventually founding a successful map making company.
In 1958 he was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. He co-founded, entered and won the first single-handed transatlantic yacht race in 1960, in Gipsy Moth III, coming second in the second race 4 years later.
On August 27, 1966 he sailed his ketch Gipsy Moth IV from Plymouth, England and returned there 226 days later on 27 January 1967, having circumnavigated the globe with one stop (in Sydney, Australia), becoming the first person to cirumnavigate the world solo from West to East via the great capes. The voyage was also a race against the clock as Sir Francis wanted to better the typical times achieved by the fastest fully crewed clipper ships during the heyday of commercial sail in the 19th century, (the first recorded solo circumnavigation of the globe was achieved by Joshua Slocum in 1898 but it took him three years with numerous stops - Slocum also took up the harder challenge of sailing east to west, against the prevailling wind). Chichester was knighted with the sword which had originally belonged to his namesake Sir Francis Drake (the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe).
In 1970, Chichester attempted to sail 4,000 miles in 20 days, in Gypsy Moth V; he failed by by one day.
Francis Chichester died of lung cancer in Plymouth, Devon on August 26, 1972.
Gipsy Moth IV was preserved alongside the Cutty Sark at Greenwich, until she required complete restoration, after which she embarked on an educational round-the-world voyage from 2005 to 2007.
Chichester published a number of books including the autobiographies Solo to Sydney (1931), Alone Across the Atlantic (1961), The Lonely Sea and the Sky (1964), and Gipsy Moth Circles the World (1967).
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