The maiden voyage was from Hong Kong to Dartmouth England without an engine in 364 days.

VOYAGE OF THE TAI-MO-SHAN

The book of the Maiden voyage was written by Martyn Sherwood. First published in March 1935.

The 7 ton lead keel.

The frame which is still intact today

Launched on St. Georges Day 1933

TAI MO SHAN's maiden voyage of 16,217 miles from Hong Kong to Dartmouth, England in 1933 took her against the prevailing winds north to Formosa then via Japan, the Kurilesthe Bering Sea, the Aleutian islands, Canada, California, Panama, the West Indies and the Bahamas.

Red finding a way through the corel reef

Fox Studio's

Repairing the cross trees off Acapulco

Grounded off Crooked Island

Arriving in Dartmouth

During a typhoon the yacht weathered 70 mile per hour gusts hove to, 6 points to the wind. In his book Sherwood tells us that their beautifully balanced boat never gave them a moment's anxiety.

Stranded on Crookd island in the Bahamas for 16 days, heeled over with a broken tiller, the crew tried to excavate a breakwater to re-float the yacht but the islanders. Seventh Day Adventists and desperately poor, refused to relinquish their only shovel which they needed to bury their dead.

The young officers were lionized wherever they landed: (indeed the loss of Lt. Francis's formal dinner jacket, while buying a monkey in Formosa, proved a great handicap!). Their arrival at the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth was a triumph, staff, students and the press sailing out to meet them with a congratulatory telegram from King George V. Their voyage had taken 364 days.