Here's the story on Speejacks as published in Circumnavigator 2006-07: FIRST TIME LUCKY Two years of planning went into the first circumnavigation by a motor yacht, but good luck followed Speejacks the whole way By Rebecca Crosgrey That the first circumnavigation in a motorboat took place when it did was only fitting. It was the dawn of the Roaring Twenties, an era of innovation, change and risk-taking. Chicago industrialist Albert Y. Gowen was up to the challenge of such a feat, but he would admit later that luck played a major role in his success. A veteran yachtsman, Gowen spent two years planning the voyage around the planet as his boat was being specially built. Called Speejacks (Gowen's nickname at Harvard), this 98-foot motor yacht had many high-tech amenities of the day that made it seem more like a small ocean liner than a serious passagemaker. It also carried four machine guns as well as pistols and rifles for the entire crew. The grand journey began August 21, 1921, from the Columbia Yacht Club in New York. Accompanying Gowen was his wife Jeanne, who had never been to sea, and for the entire 15 months was the only woman aboard. The nine other crew members were all longtime friends of Gowen, including Jack Lewis, a yachtsman who was chief engineer for the entire trip and captain for part of it, photographer Bernard F. Rogers Jr., and Ira J. Ingraham, there to record the voyage on film using the two motion picture cameras and 50,000 feet of film he had brought along. Author Dale Collins, another friend, came aboard in Australia and subsequently chronicled the trek in a book titled The Sea Tracks of the Speejacks. The first leg took them to Miami, then through the Panama Canal and into the Pacific for a 4,000-mile stretch to Tahiti. Powered by two 250-horsepower Winton engines, Speejacks had a cruising range of only 3,000 miles. However, Gowen had arranged for gasoline to be delivered to a small island along the way, and he had made similar preparations for the entire voyage. Gowen brought along 840 charts to update for the National Geographic Society, particularly in the South Seas where there were many unexplored waters. He also hoped to gather new information on wildlife for the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. The trip didn't lack for adventure. In Fiji they were treated like visiting royalty, and allowed to witness a rarely performed fire dance. They battled typhoons between Java and Singapore. On Tahiti, they took pity on a love struck couple who for legal reasons had to wait six months to get married. Speejacks went three miles out to sea where Lewis, as master of the ship, performed the ceremony. After the South Seas, their route took them to India, Arabia, Greece, Sicily, Spain, Cape Verde Islands, Puerto Rico, and Miami. The circumnavigation was completed on December 11, 1922, with a triumphant arrival in New York. Speejacks had traveled 35,000 miles and burned 75,000 gallons of fuel. In an interview with The New York Times, Gowen acknowledged the good fortune Speejacks had enjoyed. Their provisions and fuel had run dangerously low on several occasions, but they had never run out of either. There had been no accidents or serious illness over the entire time, nor had the boat suffered damage or major mechanical problems. "I would never try it again," declared Gowen. "I don't believe there would be a chance in a hundred at coming through safely. But it was worth it." ENDER