Last Voyage Of The 'Jessie W'

An 82-year-old Anglican clergyman was warned not to attempt sailing his trimaran single-handed from Suva to Australia. But three months after the departure of the Rev. Frederick Watts from Suva, an American freighter found his trimaran, Jessie W, aground on the Great Barrier Reef, 185 miles off Brisbane. Mr. Watts had been dead for some time, probably through illness and exhaustion.

“He was not a navigator,” said one of his friends in Suva. Mr. Watts had left in his 35 ft craft despite pleas from his friends to take a safer route home.

He said he had been sailing all his life. This photo was taken in Suva aboard the Jessie W.

Mr. Watts had given up partial retirement in Western Australia, to take up work in Fiji two years ago. He decided to return home to Australia after having been pursuaded by his diocese not to sail on missionary work to the Cook Islands.