Alain Gerbault

Born in 1893 in France, Alain Gerbault first studied engineering and served as a pilot during the First World War. He later turned away from conventional life and dedicated himself to the sea, earning wide attention after sailing solo across the Atlantic in the early 1920s.

Gerbault went on to make a long single-handed voyage around the world in his yacht Firecrest, becoming one of the best-known ocean sailors of his time. Along the way he wrote travel and sailing books that mixed adventure with reflections on the places he visited, especially in the Pacific.

In his later years he spent much of his time in Polynesia and wrote critically about the effects of colonialism and modern Western society on island life. He died in 1941 while traveling in Southeast Asia, leaving behind a body of work shaped by independence, long-distance sailing, and a lifelong urge to keep moving.