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35-454: Alan John Villiers , DSC (23 September 1903 – 3 March 1982) was a writer, adventurer, photographer and mariner. Born in Melbourne , Australia , Villiers first went to sea at age 15 and sailed on board traditionally rigged vessels, including the full-rigged ship Joseph Conrad . He commanded square-rigged ships for films, including Moby Dick and Billy Budd . He also commanded

70-571: A book called Sons of Sindbad, illustrated with his own photographs. With the outbreak of World War II , Villiers was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Reserve in 1940. He was assigned to a convoy of 24 LCI(L)'s, or Landing craft , Infantry (Large). Ordered to deliver them across the Atlantic , with a 40 percent loss rate expected, Villiers got all but one safely across. He commanded "flights" of LCI(L)s on D-Day in

105-693: A travel lecture film, Last of the Great Sea Dogs , which ran at the Dorothy Chandler pavilion in 1976. The film contains 16mm colour, filmography of his adventures. There is a digital restored master of the performance with an audio track, narrated by Villiers. In 1951, the Portuguese Ambassador to the United States , Pedro Teotónio Pereira , a sailing enthusiast and later a friend of Villiers, invited him to sail on

140-625: Is a third-level military decoration awarded for gallantry during active operations against the enemy at sea to officers; and, since 1993, ratings and other ranks of the British Armed Forces , Royal Fleet Auxiliary and the British Merchant Navy have been eligible. The award was formerly also awarded to members of armed forces of other Commonwealth countries. The DSC is "awarded in recognition of an act or acts of exemplary gallantry during active operations against

175-531: The Herzogin Cecilie in 1927 would result in his publication of Falmouth for Orders. Through it he met Captain Ruben de Cloux, who later became his partner in the barque Parma . He wrote By Way of Cape Horn after his experiences crewing the full-rigged Grace Harwar from Australia to Ireland in 1929. Villiers had a desire to document the great sailing ships before it was too late, and Grace Harwar

210-904: The Mayflower II on its voyage from the United Kingdom to the United States. Villiers wrote 44 books, and served as the Chairman (1960–70) and President (1970-74) of the Society for Nautical Research , a Trustee of the National Maritime Museum , and Governor of the Cutty Sark Preservation Society. He was awarded the British Distinguished Service Cross as a Commander in the Royal Naval Reserve during

245-898: The Battle of Normandy , the Invasion of Sicily , and the Burma Campaign in the Far East. By the end of the War, Villiers had been promoted to Commander and awarded the British Distinguished Service Cross . Married in 1940 to his second wife Nancie, Villiers settled in Oxford, England , and continued to be active in sailing and writing. He was the Captain of the Mayflower II in her 1957 maiden voyage across

280-622: The Joseph Conrad to George Huntington Hartford. He published two books of his adventures, Cruise of the "Conrad" and Stormalong . The Joseph Conrad is maintained and operated as a museum ship at Mystic Seaport in Connecticut, USA. In 1938, Alan Villiers embarked as a passenger on an Arab dhow for a round trip from Oman to the Rufiji Delta , and depicted the way of life of Arab sailors and their navigation techniques in

315-553: The Naval Review , and the Britannia Naval Research Association jointly established the annual Alan Villiers Memorial Lecture at St Edmund Hall, Oxford . Civilization VI includes a quote from Villiers: "There is little man has made that approaches anything in nature, but a sailing ship does." Distinguished Service Cross (United Kingdom) The Distinguished Service Cross ( DSC )

350-614: The Second World War . Alan John Villiers was the second son of Australian poet and union leader Leon Joseph Villiers. The young Villiers grew up on the docks watching the merchant ships come in and out of the Port of Melbourne . Leaving home at the age of 15, he joined the barque Rothesay Bay as an apprentice. The Rothesay Bay operated in the Tasman Sea , trading between Australia and New Zealand . An accident on board

385-399: The mizzen topgallant staysail . In light winds studding sails (pronounced "stunsls") may be carried on either side of any or all of the square rigged sails except royals and skysails. They are named after the adjacent sail and the side of the vessel on which they are set, for example main topgallant starboard stu'nsail . One or more spritsails may also be set on booms set athwart and below

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420-499: The scrapyard , Villiers renamed her the Joseph Conrad , after the writer and seaman Joseph Conrad . A sail training pioneer, Villiers circumnavigated the globe with an amateur crew. He used the environment of the sea to build character and discipline in his young crew and, with his contemporaries Irving and Exy Johnson , he helped form the modern concept of sail training. Returning almost two years later, Villiers sold

455-439: The 1990s, most of these—including Canada , Australia , and New Zealand —were establishing their own honours systems and no longer recommended British honours. Recipients are entitled to the post-nominal "DSC". The DSC is a plain silver cross with rounded ends, with a width of 43 millimetres (1.7 in) and with the following design: Since 1901 at least 6,658 Crosses and 603 bars have been awarded. The dates below reflect

490-695: The 1993 review of the honours system , as part of the drive to remove distinctions of rank in awards for bravery, the Distinguished Service Medal , formerly the third-level decoration for ratings, has been discontinued. The DSC now serves as the third-level award for gallantry at sea for all ranks, not to the standard required to receive the Victoria Cross or the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross . The DSC had also been awarded by Commonwealth countries; however, by

525-596: The Atlantic, 337 years after the original Mayflower , and beating her predecessor's time of 67 days by 13 days. From 1963 to 1967 he was involved in an unsuccessful attempt to build a replica of HM Bark Endeavour . He advised on the 1962 MGM movie Mutiny on the Bounty . Villiers was a regular contributor to the National Geographic Magazine throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Villiers produced

560-889: The BBC, in the main London newspapers, the National Geographic Magazine , and the New York Times , and the Portuguese government made Villiers a Commander of the Portuguese Order of St. James of the Sword for outstanding services to literature in March 1951. In 1978, Villiers weighed in that Francis Drake landed at New Albion at Point Reyes in Marin County , California. In 2010, the Society for Nautical Research ,

595-673: The DSC, and their eligibility was legally clarified by an order in council in 1931. World War II saw a number of changes. In December 1939, eligibility was extended to Naval Officers of the rank of Commander and Lieutenant-Commander . In April 1940, equivalent ranks in the Royal Air Force serving with the Fleet could receive the DSC, and, from November 1942, so could those in the Army aboard defensively equipped merchant ships . Since

630-615: The barque Lawhill beached Villiers in 1922, by then a seasoned Able seaman . He sought employment as a journalist at the Hobart Mercury newspaper in Tasmania while he recovered from his wounds. Soon Villiers was back at sea when the great explorer and whaler Carl Anton Larsen and his whaling factory ship, the Sir James Clark Ross came to port with five whale chasers in tow in late 1923. His accounts of

665-414: The bowsprit. One or two spankers are carried aft of the aftmost mast, if two they are called the upper spanker and lower spanker . A fore-and-aft topsail may be carried above the upper or only spanker, and is called the gaff sail . To stop a full-rigged ship, except when running directly down wind, the sails of the foremast are oriented in the direction perpendicular to those of the mainmast. Thus,

700-484: The coat of arms of the city. Full-rigged ship Other large, multi-masted sailing vessels may be regarded as "ships" while lacking one of the elements of a full-rigged ship, such as having one or more masts support only a fore-and-aft sail or a mast of only two segments. The masts of a full-rigged ship, from bow to stern , are: If the masts are of wood, each mast is in three or more pieces. They are (in order, from bottom up): On steel-masted vessels,

735-707: The enemy at sea." Since 1979, it can be awarded posthumously. The award was originally created in 1901 as the Conspicuous Service Cross , for award to warrant and subordinate officers, including midshipmen , ineligible for the Distinguished Service Order . It was renamed the Distinguished Service Cross in October 1914, eligibility being extended to all naval officers (commissioned and warrant) below

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770-407: The foremast, are tacked down on the bowsprit or jib-boom and have varying naming conventions. Staysails may be carried between any other mast and the one in front of it or from the foremast to the bowsprit. They are named after the mast from which they are hoisted, so for example a staysail hoisted to the top of the mizzen topgallant on a stay running to the top of the main topmast would be called

805-426: The masts are not constructed in the same way, but the corresponding sections of the mast are still named after the traditional wooden sections. The lowest and normally largest sail on a mast is the course sail of that mast, and is referred to simply by the mast name: Foresail, mainsail, mizzen sail, jigger sail or more commonly forecourse etc. Even a full-rigged ship did not usually have a lateral (square) course on

840-512: The mizzen course. The full set of sails, in order from bottom to top, are: The division of a sail into upper and lower sails was a matter of practicality, since undivided sails were larger and, consequently, more difficult to handle. Larger sails necessitated hiring, and paying, a larger crew. Additionally, the great size of some late-19th and 20th century vessels meant that their correspondingly large sails would have been impossible to handle had they not been divided. Jibs are carried forward of

875-402: The mizzen mast below the mizzen topmast. Instead, the lowest sail on the mizzen was usually a fore/aft sail—originally a lateen sail, but later a gaff sail called a spanker or driver. The key distinction between a ship and a barque (in modern usage) is that a ship carries a square-rigged mizzen topsail (and therefore that its mizzen mast has a topsail yard and a cross-jack yard) whereas

910-413: The mizzen mast of a barque has only fore-and-aft rigged sails. The cross-jack yard was the lowest yard on a ship's mizzen mast. Unlike the corresponding yards on the fore and main mast it did not usually have fittings to hang a sail from: its purpose was to control the lower edge of the topsail. In the rare case, the cross-jack yard did carry a square sail, that sail would be called the cross-jack rather than

945-571: The rank of lieutenant commander . From March 1915, foreign officers of equivalent rank in allied navies could receive honorary awards; in August 1916, bars were introduced to reward further acts of gallantry meriting the Cross, with a silver rosette worn on the ribbon when worn alone, to denote the award of each bar. During World War I , officers of the Merchant and Fishing Fleets had been awarded

980-631: The relevant London Gazette entries: A number of honorary awards were made to members of allied foreign forces, including 151 for World War I, and 228 (with 12 first bars and 2 second bars) for World War II. Eight honorary awards were made in 1955 to members of the US Navy for service in Korea . The above table includes awards to the Dominions : In all, 199 DSCs have gone to those serving with Canadian forces, with 34 first bars and five second bars. It

1015-524: The schooner Argus , a cod fishing four-masted schooner, and to record the last commercial activity ever to make use of sails in ocean-crossings. Villiers wrote The Quest Of The Schooner Argus: A voyage to the Grand Banks and Greenland on a modern four masted fishing schooner . The book was a success in North America and Europe and was later published in sixteen languages. The voyage made news on

1050-412: The ship had barnacles and algae growing along her waterline. The voyage took 138 days and was filmed as The Cape Horn Road ; Villiers took photographs, serving as a record of that period in full-rigged working ships. Villiers reunited with Ruben de Cloux in 1931, becoming a partner with him in the four-masted barque Parma . With de Cloux as captain, Parma won the unofficial " grain race " between

1085-588: The ships of the trade in 1932, arriving in 103 days despite broaching in a gale. In 1933, the ship won in 83 days. Villiers sailed as a passenger on both voyages. After selling his shares back to de Cloux, Villiers purchased the Georg Stage in 1934. A full-rigged sailing ship of 400 tons, originally built in 1882 by Burmeister & Wain in Copenhagen , Denmark , she was employed as a sailing school ship by Stiftelsen Georg Stages Minde. Saving her from

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1120-653: The trip were published as Whaling in the Frozen South . Named for the Antarctica explorer James Clark Ross , the Ross was the largest whale factory ship in the world, weighing in at 12,000 tons. She was headed for the southern Ross Sea, the last whale stronghold left. Villiers writes: "We had caught 228, most of them blues, the biggest over 100 feet long. These yielded 17,000 barrels of oil; we had hoped for at least 40,000, with luck 60,000." Villiers' passage on board

1155-521: Was awarded the DSC for the first time in 1919. He was awarded his second DSC in 1944. He was awarded the DSC a further two times in 1945. He gained an entry into the Guinness Book of Records as the most decorated reserve naval officer. In 1919, the Distinguished Service Cross was awarded to the City of Dunkirk for the gallant behaviour of its citizens during World War I, and the Cross appears in

1190-401: Was one of the last working full-riggers. With a small ill-paid crew and no need for coal , such vessels undercut steam ships , and maybe 20 ships were still involved in the trade. As Villiers first stood on the dock looking at Grace Harwar , a wharf laborer warned "Don't ship out in her! She's a killer." Villiers' friend Ronald Walker was lost on the journey. More than 40 years old at the time,

1225-472: Was replaced in 1993 by the Medal of Military Valour . 182 were awarded to Australians, in addition to 13 first bars and three second bars. Last awarded to an Australian in 1972, it was replaced in 1991 by the Medal for Gallantry . Only one person has ever been awarded the Distinguished Service Cross four times. Norman Eyre Morley served in the Royal Naval Reserve during World War I and World War II . He

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