| Since his early childhood, Francis Chechester had never been
interested in studies. In the year 1910, he left school and began preparations
for a voyage to New Zealand. After one year, he left for New Zealand having
made the lpromise that he would not return to England without {20,000 in
his pocket. He worked as a miner, a farm-hand, a newspaper vender and, in
the end, became middleman in land deals. IN 1929, when he returned to England,
he was earning {10,000 per annum. He started an air service, but was unsatisfied
with the pilots he employed, so hestarted flying his own aircrafts. The
spirit of adventure and thrill was inborn in him. With just a three-month-
old commercial pilot’s license, he flew from Britain to Sydney in
a single engined aircraft and crossed the sea of Tasmania all alone. During
one of his adventurous flights, his aircraft met with an accident over Japan.
Somehow he had a miraculous escape. In 1953, he bought a racing boat called
Gypsy Moth-II and in 1960, he won a solo boat race of crossing the Atlantic
Ocean. He reached the goal a week before his nearest rival. He also won
the race the next year and reduced the period of his voyage by another seven
days. |
