Manry at Sea
A documentary film production of the Robert Manry Project.
another omnisteve steve.
A film by Steve Wystrach
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OVERVIEW
Several years ago I was re-reading Tinkerbelle, the classic sea adventure by Robert Manry, while preparing my own sailboat for a voyage. I noticed in the last chapter, which concerns his gear and provisions, that he carried a 16mm movie camera. I was familiar with most of the small boat literature, as well as the films made by voyagers, and had never heard about his movie, so I decided to check into it. I learned from his publisher Harper & Row that he had died in 1971. They had an old address that helped me locate his son Douglas, who was 10 at the time of the voyage. Neither he, nor his sister Robin, had any recollection of what happened to their father’s films, and had fallen out of contact with their relatives. I pursued the few leads they provided and eventually tracked the film to a cardboard box in the back of the garage at the house of Robert’s brother John, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
In 1965, Robert Manry was a middle-aged newspaperman in Cleveland, Ohio. He had a wife and a small 50’s tract home in the suburbs; a daughter and a son; a dog and a cat; a television, and a station wagon. He worked the night shift as a copy editor for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. He was a typical, sedentary, suburban, all-American ‘Everyman’. But since a childhood encounter high in the Himalayas where he grew up as a boy, he had dreamed of sailing across the sea. He was modest, good-natured, hardworking, and pursued his vivid goal with all the resources he could muster – which included his 13½-foot sailing boat Tinkerbelle.
On the eve of his 47th birthday, he departed secretly from Cape Cod, fearing that if anyone knew his real plans, they would try to stop him. After nearly 5 weeks, and a thousand miles at sea, a passing freighter stopped and picked up his mail, and word of his extraordinary venture began to spread. Partly because he was a newsman, other news organizations picked up the story. His employers quickly developed a publicity campaign (with the aim of selling more newspapers) and flew Robert’s family to England for a much anticipated surprise reunion.
Meanwhile, across town, a rival news team hatched a plot to intercept Tinkerbelle on the high sea. Their cunning scheme ended successfully with the sensational “Scoop at Sea”, in which they snatched Manry’s amazing story from his own colleagues, as they helplessly watched the encounter from airplanes circling overhead. What began as a private man’s private endeavor transformed into a wild frenzy of press-fueled public acclaim. By the time Robert reached England, after sailing 3200 miles alone in 78 days, he had become an international celebrity. 50,000 cheering well-wishers crowded the quay as he arrived at Falmouth harbor.
His remarkable film unfolds the joyful story of a thrilling adventure by a seemingly ordinary man. It portrays the many moods of the sea, his exploits, and daily routines; the many ships he encountered, including a naval submarine and destroyer engaged in NATO war games; the torments of hallucinations; his loneliness, and moments of transcendent peace. After his arrival he was treated as a hero, wrote a best-selling book, pursued other sailing adventures, suffered personal tragedy, and died suddenly in 1971.
Manry at Sea explores the extraordinary story of Robert Manry’s life, his love affair with the sea, his triumphs and setbacks, and the story of his solo transatlantic voyage. It also recounts the high stakes gamesmanship of legendary journalists who competed fiercely to report the news, and this case, became the news themselves. The film draws on Robert’s own films, photographs, letters, and notebooks, news accounts, and personal memoirs, to document the remarkable story of how a little idea can become a very big thing; about how passion trumps circumstance; an anatomical history of how a dream comes true.
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