Harry Pidgeon

Harry Clifford Pidgeon (August 31, 1869 – November 4, 1954) was an American sailor, a noted photographer, and was the second person to sail single-handedly around the world (1921-1925), 23 years after Joshua Slocum.

On both voyages, he sailed a 34-foot yawl named Islander, which Pidgeon built himself on a beach in Los Angeles.

Before long, he traveled north to Alaska, where he took a raft down the Yukon River and spent some time sailing among the small islands of the southeastern Alaskan coast.

Later, he returned to California and traveled and worked in the Sierra Nevada mountains, taking up a career in photography.

In 1917, Pidgeon started constructing the Islander in the Port of Los Angeles from plans he copied from Rudder magazine.

Because all of his initial knowledge of seafaring and boatbuilding came from reading, he was dubbed the "Library Navigator" in the press.

There is also a collection of his work from the Sierras, documenting the everyday life in the logging community, at the California State University, Fresno.

Pidgeon was somewhat unusual in that his trips were not done as tests of his bravery, publicity stunts, or any reason other than interest in seeing the world.