Monday 5 January 2009

Small World Reunion

50 years ago, the crew of the Small World balloon attempted a trans-Atlantic crossing. My dad, Tim, my grandfather Bushy, with Colin and Rosemary Mudie. They travelled four days in the air, then 20 days by sea between Tenerife and Barbados.


Artists impression of the Small world


On my father's birthday, after some time at sea and with some distance to go, they opened a tin of  evaporated milk to celebrate.

Here, Colin (left) and Tim meet again, in more comfortable circumstances, at a family celebration of Dad's birthday.

Colin Mudie and Tim Eiloart

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

My name is Jim. We lived in Barbados and I was quite small when your folks arrived on the "Small World". We raced around the island trying to get a glimpse of the floating Gondola. Eventually we got up close to it in the Harbor Police yard where it was stored. Not sure what ever happened to it, but some how we had two souvenirs of the flight: a piece of the balloon material and possibly a piece of the gondola material. They were unfortunately discarded by my mom when we moved.

Anonymous said...

I am 48 years old now. I was a young kid when I read book about your fathers' voyage. I will always remember this book as being highly inspirational to me during my whole life. 'Anything' and 'Everything' is possible if you put your mind to it, is what I learnt from this story. A truly great story.

MS. LORD said...

Hi, I'm the daughter of the man Chesterfield Brathwaite, and his grandfather who rescued those 4 people in the Gondola. My Dad is still alive and never really got any creit for what they did... but God is good all the time

MS. LORD said...

Just want to let you know, that my dad, Chesterfield Brathwaite and his dad, were the two men ( as mentioned in the book ) that rescued the 4 peple in the Gondola