Time traveller
Peter Padfield was working for P&O when he began reading Conrad and dreaming of escape from steamships. Alan Villiers’ project to recreate the voyage of the Mayflower in an authentic replica gave him his first opportunity.
It all started towards the end of 1955. I was sitting in the wardroom of sipping gin and water and glancing through a magazine which had a short article about the building of to cross the Atlantic under Commander Alan Villiers. I had always been interested in sailing ships. This one was more fascinating than most, and I hastily wrote a letter to Villiers and posted, London’. But it found its target and I received a reply. Then at the end of a subsequent voyage I bearded him at his home and – much to my astonishment as I had no practical experience of square-riggers – was promised a berth on .
