C y 



:r^0_ r^ \^ ROUTE OF FRANCIS BRENTON 



"=\!a« ^"X, O^'E""* SEGRADA - JUNE 6. 1967 - OCTOBER 14. 1968 



"* " PREPARED B* JOMHION SlA.MOKSt MOTORS 



BRENTON 

 IS BACK 



Francis Brenton prepares the Sierra Sagrada 

 for display at the Museum 



A few jjeople manage to "do their thing" in a fashion 

 that pleases everyone and Francis Brenton, British sailor- 

 explorer-writer-photographer, is one of these. 



Brenton arrived there on October 14, completing the 

 final phase of a 15,000 mile solo round trip voyage between 

 Chicago and West Africa which began on June 6, 1967. 



Aboard his singular craft, the Sierra Sagrada, (or Holy 

 Mackerel), were artifacts acquired in West Africa for Field 

 Museum. To many, this is delivering the goods the hard 

 way, but not to Brenton, who taught himself to sail on his 

 first solo trip across the Atlantic in 1961. Greeted by Mu- 

 seum officials and the press at Burnham Harbor, he de- 

 scribed his most recent voyage as "uneventful." The only 

 snag occurred almost within sight of his destination when, 

 after 1 5,000 miles of smooth p)erformance, his outboard mo- 

 tor failed. He was towed into port by a Chicago police- 

 boat, the Louis A. Abbott, sister launch of the Morris Friedman, 

 which escorted Brenton on his last arrival two years ago. 



Bren ton's association with the Museum began in 1966 

 when he was commissioned by Dr. Donald Collier, Chief 

 Curator of Anthropology, to buy a sea-going canoe from 

 Colombian Indians in South America. He ultimately 

 bought two, a 22-foot canoe made by the Cuna Indians of 

 Panama and the Sierra Sagrada. He lashed the canoes to- 

 gether, rigged a sail, and guided the craft from Cartagena, 

 Colombia, across the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, 

 skirting Hurricane Alma on the way, and up the Mississippi 

 River to Chicago. The 3,190 mile journey took 81 days. 



On the first leg of the Chicago-Senegal trip, Brenton 

 navigated the St. Lawrence Seaway and a North Atlantic 

 route to test two theories he developed on his 1961 solo 

 crossing of the South Atlantic. He had found that the high 

 humidity in southern waters eliminated the need for carry- 

 ing fresh water, something he wanted to test under northern 

 aunospheric conditions. He also navigates without a sex- 

 tant or radio transmitter, relying on a solar navigation 

 system of his own. 



The west-east leg of the trip included several severe 



storms and a misadventure with a Russian ship which ap- 

 parently thought he was in trouble about 30 miles off the 

 West African coast. The Kostroma hauled Brenton's craft 

 aboard and took him to a Moroccan port. From there he 

 traveled to Dakar, Senegal, aboard a Danish ship and began 

 collecting for the Museum in December, 1967. 



He returned to Chicago by air in April, bringing some 

 artifacts, then went to the Canary Islands to initiate still 

 another adventurous project, a solo low-altitude balloon 

 crossing of the -Atlantic, which he was ultimately forced to 

 cancel. 



The long voyage from Dakar to Chicago was begun 

 May 31, 1968, a trip he completed in 117 days. His 

 course took hiin to the Virgin Islands, the Bahamas, towards 

 Florida along the Inter-Coastal Waterway to the St. Law- 

 rence Seaway and into the Great Lakes. 



Brenton has an almost offhand attitude toward the haz- 

 ards of his ventures, remaining affable and unassuming 

 despite his accomplishments. Meanwhile, some landlub- 

 bers are truly puzzled by his actions, as happened in Lee- 

 lanau County, Michigan, early in October. County Sher- 

 ifTs deputies there were somewhat alarmed to see an odd- 

 looking craft bobbing near shore during a Lake Michigan 

 storm. According to an article in the Leelanau Enterprise 

 and Tribune of October 10, an undersheriff and a deputy 

 reported meeting a "bewhiskered man (who had a British 

 accent)" who told them "he had sailed all the way from 

 .Africa and was headed toward Chicago." The undersheriff 

 said he "had never seen a boat like that . . . about 25 feet 

 long, bright red, had two masts, an outrigger and an out- 

 board motor." They planned a further investigation of 

 the "mysterious seafarer" but the weather cleared and he 

 was gone the next day. They have probably learned by 

 now it was Brenton. 



A native of Liverpool, 41 -year-old Brenton lives in Chi- 

 cago between trips and worked at LaSalle Photo Lab before 

 his African voyage. Plans for future projects are indefinite. 

 — Elizabeth Alanne, Field Museum Press 



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