Alan Villiers

Captain Alan Villiers (1903 – 1982) was an author, photographer, lecturer and Master Mariner. Born in Melbourne, Australia, Villiers first went to sea at age 15 and served as one of the last captains of a commercial square-riggers, a grain ship out of Australia. He captained the "Mayflower II" during her 1957 commemorative voyage and the "Joseph Conrad", which is now preserved at Mystic Seaport in Connecticut. Villiers was the author of 25 books, including Men, Ships and the Sea, Falmouth for Orders and The Way of a Ship. He also wrote frequently for National Geographic.

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Alan

Villiers

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The Drive for Speed At Sea, October 1955 | Vol. 6, No. 6

The clippers were beautiful, fast, too expensive to endure long—and a perfect expression of a great American urge

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