WX
06-17-2010, 01:31 AM
Mike Richey was born in England in 1917 but much of his early childhood was spent abroad, first of all in Albania where his father, a distinguished soldier, was for a time inspector general of the Albanian Gendarmerie and later at school in Switzerland when his parents were living in France. Later he and his brother Paul went to Downside School run by the Benedictines. After Downside he became apprenticed to the sculptor Eric Gill.
At the outbreak of war in 1939 his initial instincts were pacifist but he settled for minesweeping and with the help of a friend, a retired naval paymaster captain, was able to sign on as seaman in the Royal Naval Patrol Service and was posted to HMS Goodwill, a converted fishing vessel. After the ship was blown up in 1940 Mike undertook training as an officer and was commissioned. He was then at sea for practically the whole war, mostly in the North Atlantic on anti-submarine work but later on other missions as far south as the Antarctic and as far north as Russia
He spent a year with the Free French Navy and another year in an armed merchant cruiser in the South Atlantic. It was here he developed his particular interest in astronomical navigation, then the only position fixing aid offshore. Following that commission he took the long course at the Navigation School, HMS Dryad after which his appointments were all as navigator.
When he left the Navy in 1946 he delivered an ex-naval vessel from Gibraltar to Oslo at the end of which he bitterly regretted having to give up navigation for good. By good chance, however, he was shortly appointed as chief executive of the newly formed (now Royal) Institute of Navigation at the Royal Geographical Society, a post he held from its formation in 1947 until he retired as Director in 1980. In 1948 he founded The Journal of Navigation which he continued to edit until 1985.
The rest you will find here. When he died at the the age of 92 he was preparing for another voyage.
http://www.jesterinfo.org/mikerichey.html
At the outbreak of war in 1939 his initial instincts were pacifist but he settled for minesweeping and with the help of a friend, a retired naval paymaster captain, was able to sign on as seaman in the Royal Naval Patrol Service and was posted to HMS Goodwill, a converted fishing vessel. After the ship was blown up in 1940 Mike undertook training as an officer and was commissioned. He was then at sea for practically the whole war, mostly in the North Atlantic on anti-submarine work but later on other missions as far south as the Antarctic and as far north as Russia
He spent a year with the Free French Navy and another year in an armed merchant cruiser in the South Atlantic. It was here he developed his particular interest in astronomical navigation, then the only position fixing aid offshore. Following that commission he took the long course at the Navigation School, HMS Dryad after which his appointments were all as navigator.
When he left the Navy in 1946 he delivered an ex-naval vessel from Gibraltar to Oslo at the end of which he bitterly regretted having to give up navigation for good. By good chance, however, he was shortly appointed as chief executive of the newly formed (now Royal) Institute of Navigation at the Royal Geographical Society, a post he held from its formation in 1947 until he retired as Director in 1980. In 1948 he founded The Journal of Navigation which he continued to edit until 1985.
The rest you will find here. When he died at the the age of 92 he was preparing for another voyage.
http://www.jesterinfo.org/mikerichey.html