Centennial Johnson Sails for England
The summer of 1876 was the centennial year of American independence, and the nation was in a celebratory mood. Alfred “Alf” Johnson was a Danish-born fisherman who had worked the waters of Gloucester, Massachusetts for seven years. He resolved to mark the occasion in a manner that most would have called foolhardy: a solo crossing of the Atlantic in a twenty-foot dory he named Centennial, built for him by the Gloucester firm of Higgins and Gifford.
On June 15, 1876, Johnson set sail from Gloucester before a crowd of well-wishers, many of whom doubted they would see him again. The voyage was not uneventful. His compass was disturbed by iron aboard and had to be corrected at a stop in Barrington, Nova Scotia. Mid-ocean, a massive wave capsized the Centennial, and Johnson clung to the hull for some twenty minutes before a second wave righted her. He fended off a shark with an oar fitted with a knife, accepted a tablespoon of rum from a passing liner, and received bread from the brig Alfredon after his provisions were soaked by seawater. He arrived at Abercastle, Wales on August 12, completing what is now recognized as the first recorded solo transatlantic crossing by small boat. Back in Gloucester, when asked about the voyage, he reportedly said he had been “a damn fool.”
The voyage inspired a comic ballad by Gloucester poet Kitty Parsons, collected in her 1946 volume Gloucester Sea Ballads. Her poem Centennial Johnsen and His Dory Sail follows the voyage with affectionate humor, and ends with Johnson in his retirement years, beating his friends at cards in the rooms of the Master Mariners’ Association.