William Willis (September 8, 1893 – July 1968) was an American sailor and writer who is famous due to his solo rafting expeditions across oceans.

[1] A few days after the New Year in 1938, Willis rented a room in New York City from a French immigrant named Madame Carnot.

Out of compassion and a sense of adventure, Willis set out to the penal colony to effect Bernard Carnot's escape, which he eventually accomplished.

He left Callao on 5 July 1963, made a lengthy stop in Apia, and after a total of 204 days at sea, arrived near Tully Heads, Queensland, completing his voyage on 9 September 1964.

On September 24, 1968, the crew of the Soviet Latvian trawler Yantarny sighted his half-submerged boat nearly four hundred miles west of the Irish coast.