CONTENTS Title Page Dedication Illustration Captions Maps Images 1 • Little One 2 • Beginnings 3 • Devil’s Island 4 • Seven Little Sisters 5 • Colleagues 6 • Calamities 7 • Samoa 8 • Progeny 9 • Age Unlimited 10 • Willis from New York 11 • Full Stop Bibliography Acknowledgments About the Author Also by T. R. Pearson Copyright This book is dedicated to Mayor Andy Baxter and to the memory of his beloved wife, Carley Cunniff, in modest token of my gratitude for their support, encouragement, and invaluable friendship ILLUSTRATION CAPTIONS Frontispiece: A haggard Willis aboard the Coast Guard cutter Ingham, 1966. Front Matter: Pacific voyages of Kon-Tiki, Tahiti Nui, Tahiti Nui II (and III), and Lihi IV. Front Matter: South Pacific voyages of William Willis’s Seven Little Sisters and Age Unlimited. Front Matter: North Atlantic voyages of Willam Willis’s Little One. Front Matter: Rigging on the Age Unlimited (drawings by Willis). Front Matter: Willis in convict garb, 1938. Chapter 2: Willis ties the lashings of the Seven Little Sisters, 1954. Chapter 3: The Age Unlimited leaves Callao Harbor under tow, 1963. Chapter 4: The Seven Little Sisters under way, 1954. Chapter 5: Cans of fresh water stowed below deck on the Seven Little Sisters, 1954. Chapter 6: Willis in the galley of the Age Unlimited, 1963. Chapter 7: Hernia relief (drawing by Willis). Chapter 8: The Age Unlimited aground off Samoa, 1963. Chapter 9: Willis, with Teddy, receiving the Certificate of Masterful Seamanship for his Age Unlimited crossing from the president of The Maritime Union of America, 1965. Chapter 10: Willis in the cabin of Little One, 1968. Chapter 11: Little One under tow on the East River, New York, 1966.