The Log of the 'Godwit', being the Record of a Voyage of over 7,000 miles from England to India in a 25-ton Yacht.

William FIFE (boatbuilder). - Charles Thornton Rennie SCOVELL (1864 – Nov. 22 1910).

The Log of the 'Godwit', being the Record of a Voyage of over 7,000 miles from England to India in a 25-ton Yacht. Gosport to Bombay – 1902-03. [No place, but Mumbai: ‘Printed at the “Times of India” Press] reprinted from the “Indian Sporting Times”, 1903. Octavo (8 3/8 x 5 3/8in; 213 x 136mm). Pp. [i-ii; 1-]69[-70], with 4pp. manuscript at the end listing the ‘Expenses’ incurred during the trip (£760 in total, the equivalent of around £95,000 [or $125000] today). 22 half-tone illustrations from photographs, the author has added marginal notes /explanations at 9 separate points during the narrative. (Some old staining, erasure from title with slight surface damage resulting, clean tear to pp.25/26). Contemporary green half morocco over green cloth-covered boards, ticket of ‘Thacker & Co. Ltd of Bombay’ on the rear pastedown, titled in gilt on the flat spine, dark blue/black glazed endpapers (some damage from damp, discoloration and rubbing to leather).

Provenance: The Author (inscribed at front ‘Private Copy / CTRS’, manuscript notes at the back, etc).

The Author’s copy of this first separate publication of his narrative of the voyage of the 72-foot ‘Godwit’ from England to India via the Suez Canal. Very rare.   

The ‘Godwit’ was built by the famous William Fife of Farlie, Scotland, who said of her “She is the strongest yacht I have ever built”. In addition, she was modified for this trip. Her destination was the mooring of the Royal Bombay Yacht Club, Mumbai. C.T.R. Scovell went on to serve as Commodore of the R.B.Y.C. from 1907-1907, and in February 1909 he sailed home to England on a Fife’s of Farlie designed schooner: the 100-foot ‘Muriel’ (built in Bombay).  Tragically, Scovell drowned in late 1910 when he was lost overboard in the English Channel. The R.B.Y.C instituted the Scovell Memorial Shield in his memory: the trophy’s design includes mention of both the ‘Godwit’ and the ‘Muriel’.

The present letterpress text is adapted from the author’s dairies and the log as kept be him and other crew members and covers the voyage from Gosport, Hampshire, England, to Mumbai [‘Bombay’], India, between 24th October 1902 to the 3rd March 1903. The title indicates that it was first published in the pages of the “Indian Sporting Times”.

Scovell was evidently very capable, but was nonetheless a ‘gentleman sailor’, which meant that, although he was in charge, he did have a professional captain: W. Evans of Gosport. In addition there was a revolving crew of four or five, as well as between one and three additional ‘gentlemen’ sailors who boarded and disembarked at various ports along the route. The route taken was down the Channel / Bay of Biscay, etc. to Gibraltar (with an unexpected stop in Figueira da Foz, Portugal). Then Gibraltar to Algiers, then “coasting along Algeria”, to Malta. Then Greece, the Corinth canal, the Greek islands, including Santorini, then on to Port Said, Egypt. Through the Suez Canal, Port Said to Suez. The Red Sea, Perim, Aden, then “coasting off Arabia” and on to Bombay.

The account is an entertaining mixture of semi-technical information (miles logged, weather, hazards) together with comments on the places visited and the faults and strengths of the people he was sailing with. The manuscript notes do add considerably to the interest of the account: identifying a particularly useless navigator as being called ‘Greenwood’ (referred only as ‘X’ in the printed narrative), giving some more details of some side-trips that Scovell made, and then, at the end, giving a lot of fascinating detail about the many costs involved in making the voyage.

The individuals who took part in the voyage are as follows:

Captain: W. Evans of Gosport. [m/s note at end “Poor Evans – died of Cancer at Portsmouth on the 5th Nov 1903”]

George Vance Scovell (brother of the author, from Port Said to Bombay)

C M LaTouche (as far as Port Said)

George, cook and steward (as far as Part Said)

Jack, able seamanHarry, able seaman (as far as Port Said)

Lenn [Evans] the skipper’s son [m/s note at end “Lenn joined the Muriel in 1909 as mate subsequently became her Skipper”]

Greenwood, navigator as far as Figueira.

Middleton, of HMS Intrepid (Port Said to Suez)

Taylor, of the Eastern Exchange (Port Said to Ismailia)

John ‘Port Said Algerian’ (Port Said to Perim)[no name given] the ‘Port Said Boatman’ (Port Said to Aden)

[no name given] the ‘Perim Arab Boy’

Sheik Esu, ‘tindal of the Bombay yacht “Isca” leant me by her owner, Mr Chrystal’ (p.50)

Raman, ‘an old “Forella” hand of mine’

[no name given] ‘a Madrasee butler … he turned out a great success’