Once she was underway, Exy realized what a nuisance long hair was on a schooner in ugly C hannel wea ther and climbin g wet rigging. Looking for a ship's barber, she was referred to Irving Johnson . Exy noticed that the ship's Mate took an inordin ately long time at the job. Smitten, they soon fell in love. "Beyond this point," Exy noted, "I sh al l only say that it was a perfect cruise for three months." By the time they reached G lo ucester, Exy and Irving were engaged . Rea lizi ng that she must soon face her fa mily, Exy invited them down from Rochester to participate in a bridge party on the deck of Wander Bird as a means of introduction to her cleanedup suitor. Within a year, she and Irving wed and made plans to purchase a schooner and sail her, like Wander Bird, with a number of yo ung people who could share the expenses and labor of a long cruise. After frustrated efforts in 1933 to buy a boat in H am burg, they settled on a pilot schooner, the Dutch Loodschooner4, which they renamed the Yankee and sa iled for Am erica. It was shortly after Yankee 's arrival in Gloucester in the summer of 1933 that Mother, who was living in nearby Cam bridge, ran into her old fri end Irving Johnson. He and Exy were frantically prepa ring for their first round-the-world cruise. At the time, Mother was mourning the tragic death of a younger sister and had only recently divorced my father. The Johnsons tried to persuade her to join them . Though she was tempted, my sister and I we re just toddlers at the time, and the voyage was expected to las t eighteen months. "But I have to admit," Mother recalled, "I wept salt rears into the salt sea as we trailed the Yankee down G loucester harbor the day she set sail." Before leaving on Yankee's first round-the-world cruise, Exy gave Mother an introduction to Warwick and Gwen Tompkins, scheduled to arrive on Wander Bird in the fall. She and Gwen became fast friends and Mo ther once again found herself being enticed with a deep-sea voyage. Mother knew she must cross the Atlantic with Gwen and Warwick or she "would never trust [her] lucky star again! " There, in the Captain's quarters, they wo uld talk of the battles lost and won and the beauty and mys tery of the ships while we heard the whispering of the snow across the decks above, and the sleeping children turning in their bunks at our elbow.
Wander Bird by Frank Vining Smith (1879-1967) The rapidl y growin g friendship between Mother and the skippers' wives, combined with the anticipated charms of life aboard Wander Bird, lent fire and determination to her adventuresome heart. These rwo remarkable wo men, Exy Johnson and Gwen Tompkins-friends since college-seemed to understand the ways of men like Warwick and Irving, who had a passion for both the beauty and the dangers of the sea; still, they knew nothing about sails, sheets a nd halya rds, a pitching deck or seasickness. They knew even less about the driving ambition of the serious skipper, often requiring harsh discipline at sea. Gwen preferred to maintain the tradi tional role of wife a nd mother, choosing to stay below deck with her chores: reaching her children, securing the supplies, tending to her knitting, sorting the laundry, and helping rhe cook in rhe galley. At times she stood watch to relieve the others for more strenuous wo rk aloft, but she felt no joy as would her husband when Wander Bird was pushing her limits in a roaring gale or taking shortcuts through rocky straits. Warwick and Gwen's daughter, Ann, only a small child at the time, recalls: As I look back on our life at sea, I think my m other was really incredible-among pioneers, brave, even if she preferred evenkeel sailing to pushing ha rd with the lee rail underwater. She let her children climb the rigging and go out on the bowsprit, after all! Mother decided to join those "adve nturous yo ung women" for .one brief voyage. Having already given up the much longe r voyage with the Johnsons in Yankee a nd having limited her time on Wander Bird to a one-way sail to Sweden, rerur'n ing by steamer, she quick ly arra nged to place my sister a nd me (ages three and five at the time) with friends in Cambridge for the summer of 1934; no less ch allenging was the need to persuade the ship's captain to (left) Gwen Tompkins at the helm with her son "Commodore" (Warwick Tompkins Jr. ) keeping an eye on her course.
SEA HISTORY 129, WINTER 2009-10
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