Hand man wanted for long voyage in small boat. No pay no prospects not much pleasure.So read the crew notice placed in the personal column of The Times by H.W. Bill Tilman in the spring of 1959. This approach to selecting volunteers for a yearlong voyage of 20000 miles brought mixed seafaring experience Osborne had crossed the Atlantic fiftyone times in the Queen Mary playing double bass in the ships orchestra.With unclimbed icecapped peaks and anchorages that could at best be described as ch