A Unique Vision of the Sea on Film by Philip Sugg, Film Officer, National Maritime Museum of Great Britain As a write r and recorder of the sea , Alan Vi ll iers spoke from firs t-hand knowledge as a sailo r and from deep conv ict io n as a man of ideas . His upbring ing in Australia a nd tough early life serv ing o n board square- rigge rs gave a kee n edge to his observati on , which cut thro ugh some of the mo re ro ma ntic noti ons of th e sea to be found in literature. Yet he sha red with the g reat write r, Joseph Conrad , a real awe of the sea and love of its challenge in itself, and as a profo und part of man's ex pe rience. Recording a nd sha ring his pa rt of this ex pe ri e nce was impo rtant to him , a nd he used a var iety of medi a to achieve his e nds. His books (many, sadl y out of print , are soughtafte r coll ecto rs' ite ms) rema in the most complete records. They range from the late 1920s to the end of his life a nd are ofte n il lustrated with his own still photographs-a mere sample of the many hundreds he took. Among his last books still in print a re Voyaging With the Wind (1975) , as introductio n to sai ling large square- rigged ships usi ng some of his photos ; and his contributio n to Problems ofShip Management and Operation , 1870-1900(1972) , both obtainable fro m th e Nati o nal Ma ritime Museum at G ree nwich , Lo ndo n SE 10. Alan Villiers was also a cine film -maker of no small ab ility. The sto ry of his int roducti o n to the med ium bega n in tragedy. It was on the voyage of the finnish square-rigged ship Grace Ha n var from Wall aroo to Gl asgow with a cargo of wheat , that he was bapti zed as a film -ma ke r, a nd it was this voyage which was reco rded in o ne of his mos t successful ea rl y books, By Wa y of Cape Horn . One thing was certain : anyone who went o n such a voyage, even as a " passenge r," knew that they were e nte ring a ha rsh wo rld w ith sta nda rds mo re akin to those of preceding centuries than the world of the 1920s o r 30s. Alan Villie rs and Ro nald Walker sig ned o n fo r complex and inte res ti ng reaso ns wh ic h a re ex pl a ined at the beginning of Villiers' account of the voyage. A jo urnalist's eye fo r a sto ry was combined w ith th e bo redo m felt by two yo ung re po rte rs o n a provinc ia l Tas ma ni a n newspa pe r, e mphasized no do ubt by Villie rs' ea rlier ad ventures at sea o n board th e big square- rigger Bellands. They pla nned to ma ke a cine film of the voyage , w ith Ro nald Walke r as photographe r, alth o ugh he had not had much expe ri ence of film-making . However, the light weight came ras the n being introduced fo r the amateur ma rket were sound and effecti ve machines, and were cheap compa red to professio nal equipment. In some ways, they stood a better chance than the profess io nal : th ey had their sea legs and knew the ropes, and had a job to do instead of just getting
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"I managed, somehow, more by the grace of God than any inherent capacity for the job." under the crew's feet. With a crew of o nl y thi rteen (far fewer than she wou ld have had in her old life) , Captain Svensso n needed all the hands he could get, however inexperie nced or yo ung. T he voyage was horrifying by our standards, and pretty bad by th e standa rds of the day. The ship was serio usly unde rmanned ; a nd with a very old and decrepit ship thi s was a reci pe fo r d isaste r. The death of Ronald Walke r, ki lled off Cape Ho m by a falling to pgall ant ya rd, deepl y affected A lan Vil liers for the rest of his life. It spurred hi m on to complete the wo rk , both of wr iting a nd fi lming the world of th e Cape Horn Road. But Walker had been th e photographer. As Vi ll ie rs put it: " I did not know how to load the cameras with film .. . .I managed , somehow, more by the grace of God tha n a ny inhe rent capac ity for th e job." The res ul ti ng book was hailed as a masterpiece of its genre, and the fi lm too, produced excellent rushes. But film -maki ng is a mo re com plex med ium tec hnicall y th an writing. T here are mo re stages between the fi lming of the ex pe ri ence and the fi nis hed presentati on. T his involves professionals, who, ce rtai nl y at th at time , were not ab le to unde rsta nd Walker's and Villiers' intenti o ns. Alan Vill iers makes it clear th at he rega rded the commerc ial fi lm Windjam mer, which incorpo rated their fi lm and some of th e story, as a travesty. In tru th , it is an odd res ult : li ve actio n of beautifu l qu ality is j uxtaposed with inte ri or ship scenes on very early sound stages whi ch are stati c, e ncourag ing some very sti ff acting. T he film certainl y does not fee l rig ht , and it seems a shame th at nobody of the stature of G rierson or Flaherty wo rked on the project. Vi llie rs' res ponse to the fa ilure of the fi lm in his ow n eyes was inte resting. As he wr ites in the preface to a later editi on of By Way of Cape Horn, " I went away and took the real fi lm that had not been used , and looked at it myself. This was, I thought, one fi lm the nabobs might have left alone." So rathe r th an aband on fi lm-ma king altogeth e r, he simpl y turned his bac k o n the professio nal and continued as fa r as possibl e o n his ow n . For nea rl y every o ne of his books the re is some film footage, capturing the graceful Arab dhows he wrote of in Sons of Sinbad; the big fo ur-maste r Parma , of which he was part-owne r for a titne , in he r Cape Ho rn voyages, a nd the little full -rigge r Joseph Conrad which he sailed around the wo rld in a o nce-in-a- lifetime sa il trai ning venture.
Se lf- taught as a cameraman , Villie rs had suffic ie nt command of the medium to convey h is ow n ideas a nd visio n , even th o ugh the ma te ri al was neve r fin all y edited no r sound track added. Afte r th e wa r his fi lm s divers ified together with his acti vities . Sa il training projects ; skippering conve rted shi ps for famo us movies such as Billy Budd a nd Hawaii and the great transatl a ntic voyage of the Ma yflower 11. These were all fi lmed as fa r as time allowed . Villie rs used the footage by incorpo rating it into lectures, whic h became a well loved part of his work thro ugho ut the wo rld , ofte n spo nso red by enterprising institutions such as the National Geographic Magazine. W hat chance is there to see some of Villiers' rema rkable o utput? First of all , th e reade r may have seen some of the footage w ithout rea lizing it 1 Profess io nal film-ma ke rs have often used small extracts, pa rticul a rl y fro m Cape Horn Road, to give the effect of a ship beati ng her way th rough heavy seas. Sometimes they use the mate rial in just the way that Viii iers disli ked : fo r the roma ntic appeal a nd sensati o n. Even when th e use is more ho nes t , we seldo m see mo re th a n a few minutes of the whole reco rd. T he original fi lms re mai ned with A la n Vi llie rs until , towards the e nd ofhi s li fe , he placed them on loa n to the British Nati o nal Maritime Museum , whe re he had bee n a trustee for many years. He had prev io usly dona ted copies to other institutio ns such as Mystic Seapo rt , Connecti cut , whe re the Joseph Con rad is moo red . Howeve r, the ma in body of fi lm required pro pe r storage and a great deal of documenting of the many di ffere nt versio ns he had made fo r lecture to urs . As pa rt of the Museum's survey, we are listing all the othe r holdings th rougho ut the wo rld and comparing copies to find o ut which a re the best vers io ns. So me ge ms have emerged , including a so und ve rsio n with Villiers lecturing in hi s inimita bl e style on a ra nge of material fro m Arab d hows to Grace Harwar. Ala n Villie rs' reputati o n as a write r a nd maritime documento r has been established for many years, but what of him as a fi lmmaker? In some ways Villie rs was a pio nee r and I am su re he wo uld have bee n happie r worki ng in the modern wo rld of the television documentary. How well his ideas would have worked o n a te lev isio¡n sc reen with himself there to add his own tre nchant philosophy to th e images he had selected! Let us ho pe that by prese rving hi s coll ectio n intact we shall retain something of his visio n of the sea . w Mr. Sugg 's thoughtful appreciation of Villiers 'films originated in a discussion he held with your editor and the artist-historian John Noble at Snug Harbor, Staten Island, in the spring of 1983. SEA HISTORY, SU MME R 1984