Chapter One

Captain Frank McEwen, Director-elect of the Rhodes Centenary Museum at Salisbury, Rhodesia, is in addition to being an expert on Modern Art, an amateur Ocean Yachtsman of vast experience and no mean skill, and a true lover of the sea.

He is, furthermore, the owner of the 15-ton ketch "Penelope" and, upon his appointment to Salisbury, decided to sail in his own boat from Paris to South Africa, en route for the Rhodesian Capital.

This 13,000 mile voyage took two years to prepare and finally, on 16th June 1955, "Penelope" cast off her moorings in the Seine and dropped down the river, with ultimate destination Cape Town.