Harry Clifford Pidgeon (1869–1954) was an American photographer and sailor who achieved historic milestones in solo maritime navigation. Despite having no prior sailing experience before embarking on his first global voyage, Pidgeon successfully constructed a 34-foot yawl named Islander by hand on a beach in Los Angeles. His reliance on books to learn the craft of navigation earned him the nickname "Library Navigator" in the contemporary press.\n\nBetween 1921 and 1925, Pidgeon completed his first solo circumnavigation of the globe, making him only the second person in history to do so, following Joshua Slocum. During this historic journey, he became the first person to solo-circumnavigate by way of the Panama Canal, as well as the first to sail a yacht around the world via the Panama Canal and the Cape of Good Hope. Not content with a single voyage, Pidgeon embarked on a second solo circumnavigation from 1932 to 1937, securing his place in history as the first person to solo-circumnavigate the world twice.\n\nPidgeon documented his remarkable maritime exploits in his 1932 book, Around the World Single-Handed: The Cruise of the "Islander". His writings and lectures inspired generations of amateur sailors, demonstrating that determination and self-education could overcome a lack of formal training. He spent his later years continuing his association with the sea, remembered as a pioneer of single-handed ocean cruising.
