A Sausalito Sailor’s World Cruise Aboard ‘Nereus’
Every so often, a story will bring together sailors who crossed tacks many years earlier. Such was the case when Sausalito’s Margaret “Pinkie” Pomeroy shared a story of voyaging with her family. When Bill Barker read about Pinkie’s talk at the Sausalito Yacht Club, he realized his father had sailed with the Pomeroy family when Bill was just a boy. Bringing together sailors from across the latitudes and through the years is one of the reasons we share these stories. And the story that follows hopes to reunite Pinkie with her family’s beloved Nereus, or at the very least give her closure as to the vessel’s eventual resting place. A longtime member of the Sausalito Yacht Club, in 1963, at age 20, she set sail with her parents William and Peggy Pomeroy, and her brothers John and Bill, on a six-month, 13,490-mile voyage aboard the 85-ft ketch Nereus. It all began when Pinkie’s father told his family he wanted to sail the world together.
“Nothing is original.” That’s what Dad told the family when he shared his dream to sail around the world. Dad reminded us that Magellan was the first European to dream of a circumnavigation in the early 16th century, and even though Magellan died en route, one of his five ships completed the trip. So the circumnavigation idea wasn’t original. What was original was Dad’s plan for the route — San Francisco to Singapore via the Pribilof Islands off the coast of Alaska, in the Bering Sea.
As I sorted through boxes of Nereus‘s files stored in my garage, the family’s 1963-64 world cruise came back to life. I found four logbooks, two diaries (my own and my mother’s), several paper charts, and old newspapers and photographs. There was even a letter from Commodore Bob Van Blaricom dated April 10, 1965, inviting Dad to speak about the Nereus’s circumnavigation at the Sausalito Yacht Club.
My mother Peggy was a 44-year-old Southern belle whose family roots can be traced back to the Battle of Kings Mountain in 1780 during the Revolutionary War. She had a wide streak of curiosity and a spirit of adventure. As a matter of fact, she signed up as a NASA volunteer to go on a future trip to the moon.
Dad was 46 years old. He was the executive vice president of J. H. Pomeroy & Co., an engineering and construction firm started by his father. As a teenager he worked for his dad’s company, which had a joint contract with Raymond Concrete to build the approaches to the Golden Gate Bridge.
Dad purchased Nereus in December 1962. Designed by William Garden, Nereus was an 85-ft steel-hulled ketch-rigged yacht. She was built by Western Boat Building Company, Tacoma, WA, and launched in September 1962. Her first owner, Clarence Postley, had named her, but shortly thereafter changed his plans and put her on the market. The original design for the sails included a fore-and-aft mizzen, main and jib, as well as a course of about 1,000 square feet and a raffee of approximately 600 square feet. When Dad bought Nereus, the raffee was not there — only the course.
Continue reading in the April issue of Latitude 38.