Robert Manry was born in 1918 in Landour, India, 7,000 feet above sea level in the Himalayas. Here he lived and had most of his schooling until the age of 19. His first sailing was done on the Jumna River at Allahabad, where his father was a Presbyterian missionary-educator.

In late 1936, on his way back to the United States, he studied for one semester at Lingnan University in Canton, China. He left from Tientsin in 1937, the day before the Japanese attack at Marco Polo Bridge.

Mr. Manry entered Antioch College and after an interruption for service with the 66th Infantry in Europe got an A.B. degree in political science. He has worked as a reporter in Washington Court House, Ohio, and in Pittsburgh and Erie, Pennsylvania. Since 1953 he has been a copy editor on the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Mr. Manry and his wife and two children live in a suburb of Cleveland. His hobby, in addition to sailing, is photography.

This book tells how a dream became a deed: how a middle-aged, married and presumably sober copy editor of the Plain Dealer, of Cleveland, Ohio, happened to get the idea of sailing across the Atlantic Ocean in a small boat, how he acquired the boat, and how he executed the voyage that made his idea a reality. It is the story of the 13-foot sloop Tinker-belle, believed to be the smallest boat ever to cross the Atlantic nonstop.

The author, having undertaken to explain why he made the voyage, describes his adventures during the 78 days it lasted: being awakened by a submarine, being knocked overboard by big waves, meeting three Russian trawlers, suffering weird hallucinations, repairing a broken rudder in mid-ocean, receiving a feast from a Belgian ship captain, trying to get dry, being interviewed by a Cleveland TV newsman 250 miles from journey's end, and receiving a welcome from an armada of small boats at his destination, Falmouth, England.

Quite apart from the thrill of the exploits it reports, Robert Manry's story has the happy effect of persuading the reader that he too could sail a small boat single-handed across the Atlantic ... if only he could find the time. (Taken from the first printing in 1966.) (Permission has been granted by Robert's son, Douglas Manry, to reprint this classic)

Tinkerbelle is 268 pages in length and is bound in gold leaf-enhanced rich maroon leatherette binding. The book sells for $49.95 plus $5.00 shipping and handling. Allow four to six weeks for delivery. You may order online or order by check or money to: Ritz Publications P.O. Box 29182 Shreveport, Louisiana 71149 www.ritzpublications.com 318-996-0419 You may also order online.

© Ritz Publications 2003-2006