Fairhaven High School - Huttlestonian Yearbook (Fairhaven, MA)

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27 THE HUTTLESTONIAN Hie Incredible Voyage T HE Channel swim is no longer the topic of the day; it is of the crossing of the Atlantic in a sailboat by Alain Gerbault that we wish to speak. This young sportsman in a cutter about twenty-eight feet long, of ten tons, has accomplished a feat never before realized in similar con¬ ditions. Leaving Cannes in the month of April he went to Gibraltar and from there started across the Atlantic. For one hundred and forty- two days he struggled against the ocean, the elements, hunger, thirst, the heat of the sun, even sickness, and also against the solitude. Alone upon his frail craft he was always headed toward the promised land which seemed to get farther away each day. He experienced all pain and suffering, with wonderful courage he withstood them. Three times he was the plaything of the storm. His boat was nearly wrecked. Doggedly he waited for the calm and then proceeded to make repairs. On the 142nd day of the journey he had lived 26 days in a raging storm where the waves buffeted his small cabin, demolishing new objects every day. A large part of the drinking water went bad during one of these days. The angry sea took overboard 180 litres out of 280 litres that he had taken with him. When he did not have any more drinking water he waited for the rain. He gathered it in receptacles in order to partly quench his thirst. A warm rain which poured down in torrents obliged him to strip all his clothing from his body in order to stand it. He contracted bronchitis with fever and for two days he was unconscious and de¬ lirious in his boat which was at the mercy of the waves. But he carried on. The 5th of September for the first time he saw a boat. He was then 190 miles east of the Nantucket lightship. The boat was a Greek tramp, the Byron. The captain offered to give the navigator a tow. Gerbault refused, accepting some provisions and fresh water. What can one think of the energy of this young man, fighting for 130 days, subject to great suffering, declining the offer and remaining alone be¬ tween the sky and the sea in spite of the fear of the next day, but with the will to triumph ? What a wonderful lesson in tenacity given to

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26 THE H UTTLESTO N1AN Mathematics SHALL WE HAVE A MATHEMATICS CLUB? E ARLY in November a meeting will be called for the purpose of discussing the advisability of organizing a mathematics club. Such a club might be honorary, membership being limited to pupils who are doing at least B work in mathematics. The purpose of the club would be two-fold: first, to organize students with a com¬ mon interest that they may meet as a social group, and second, to provide the opportunity for further acquaintance with mathematics both as a tool and a pastime. Regular meetings would be held with perhaps an occasional outside speaker on mathematical subjects. Are you interested ? If so, attend the meeting when it is called. Considerable interest was shown recently by members of the senior and junior mathematics classes in the following “mind teaser” brought to class by E. Knowlton: X= 1 X2=j X2=X X2—1 — X—1 XM = X-1 X-l X-l (X+1) (X—1) =X-1 X-l X-l X+1 = 1 1 + 1=1 2=1 Can you find out what is wrong with it ? Mr. Staples: “What is two times nothing?” Student (?) : “Two.”

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28 THE HUTTLESTONIAN the entire world. And to fight against sleep! Often Gerbault spent three or four days without closing his eyes, and when he went ashore on Long Island he had not slept for eighty hours. « He used in the course of his journey of 6000 kilometers, 60 pounds of canned beef, 36 cans of condensed milk, 30 kilograms of sugar, 10 pounds of tea and 34 pounds of hard tack. At his arrival he forgot all his bad moments during nearly five months of travel. “Apart from the loss of my drinking water the voyage was ideal, God never forgot me. I now intend to go around the world, a cruise of about three years,” he said. “God never abandoned me.” One sees Alain Gerbault praying on his knees in his little sloop while the waves threatened to capsize him and the lightning cut the water. What artist would be able to give the beauty of this marvelous isolation when the mariner upon an imperceptible nut-shell was the target of all the raging elements? Translated from the French (Les Annales.) F. S., ’23. “ IF ” “If those who pine would whistle, If those who sigh would laugh, The rose would outgrow the thistle, The wheat would outrun the chaff.” —Selected.