A Day to Remember Alfred ‘Centennial’ Johnson
One of my favourite places in Pembrokeshire is the little village of Abercastle. It looks now as though it’s all holiday cottages but at one time it must have been a fine little fishing community.
Abercastle also has some history. Anyone who has been to the little cove should have noticed the plaques on the slipway to the beach commemorating Alfred Johnson.
On 15 June 1876 Johnson set sail from Gloucester, Massachusetts, in a fishing dory. Pausing to make some adjustments to the boat’s ballast in Nova Scotia, he was back on track for his intended transatlantic single-handed journey to Liverpool more than 3,000 miles away, just a few days later.
Averaging around 70 miles a day and surviving storms and on one occasion the capsizing of his boat, he landed at Abercastle on 10 August.
On the 21 August he sailed into Liverpool, completing the first recorded single-handed crossing of the Atlantic, all in the name of celebrating the centennial of the United States and proving that human beings can often achieve the impossible, as long as they are daring enough to have a go.
