Walter Frederick Rayner’s attempt to circumnavigate the globe ~ by Helen Dennis, March 2025 ~
In 1932, three years into both the Great Depression and his first marriage, my grandmother’s brother Walter built a little boat and attempted to sail around the world. According to Sydney’s Labor Daily newspaper, Walter was the first Australian to attempt the feat in such a small craft.[i]
The 28-foot ‘Bermudian-rigged cutter’ was built in Lavender Bay in Sydney, and launched on 27th July 1932. Named the Quest, the timber yacht was built especially for the voyage and, while it was intended that the majority of the trip would be made under sail, the Quest did contain a small engine as a backup.
Walter was 25 years old. His wife Jean (nee Winter) was a 27-year-old trained nurse from Mungindi. They were a young, seemingly carefree couple who lived at Seaforth in a house overlooking Sydney’s Middle Harbour. The property had been unencumbered when Jean purchased it before she married. However, Walter borrowed heavily against it in May 1929, taking out a mortgage for double the original purchase price. Walter and Jean had no children, but they owned a dog named Bosun.
Jean had no experience at sea life but had nevertheless agreed to accompany Walter – and his sailing partner, 19-year-old William Lowe – for part of the journey; from Palm Beach to Cairns.
Walter was a member of the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club which I believe was, at that time, based in Sydney Harbour (it’s now located at Pittwater). Both Walter and Lowe had undertaken extensive training on craft of the Quest’s type. Walter planned to fly the ‘burgee’ (or flag) of the Yacht Club during the voyage.
Walter, Lowe – and Walter’s faithful offsider Bosun the dog – departed Sydney Harbour in the luxuriously appointed Quest on Saturday 6th August 1932. They planned to sail north via Brisbane to the Barrier Reef and then to London by way of New Guinea, India, the Suez Canal, the Mediterranean Sea and the Straits of Gibraltar. The return would be via the Atlantic Ocean to the Panama Canal, and then across the Pacific Ocean to New Zealand before returning to Sydney.
On the first day, the Quest travelled as far as Broken Bay near Pittwater just north of Sydney. There, the crew rendezvoused with Jean, and the trio (and Bosun) spent a week at the home of Walter’s parents at Palm Beach. Expecting the voyage to take eighteen months, the men spent the week provisioning. They took aboard ‘over 12 cases of food’ including bully beef and ship’s biscuits, 150 gallons of fresh water; as well as a rifle, shot gun and fishing tackle. Walter told reporters that, while he intended the cruise to be leisurely, he wanted to stop as little as possible.
– Daily Standard (Brisbane), 10 Aug 1932
The Quest – with Walter, Lowe, Bosun the dog, and now Jean, aboard – departed Goddard’s Wharf, Pittwater, at 4 pm on Sunday, 14th August 1932. She’d been travelling for just over twelve hours when ‘the running gear was carried away and the auxiliary engine would not start’.[ii] The little boat ‘hove-to’ eight miles from shore off Catherine Hill Bay (about halfway between Terrigal and Newcastle). Walter signalled to a passing cargo boat for assistance and the Quest was towed into Port Hunter (Newcastle) by the steamer Abersea.
The breakdown was of course an inconvenient setback, but it was also damaging for publicity. Numerous newspapers had picked up the story of the Quest and its crew’s daring endeavour and all of them had, until that time, enthusiastically championed the men and made much of their round-the-world ambitions.
To counter any bad press, Walter – whose day job was in advertising – swung immediately into action. After the mishap off Newcastle, several publications rewrote the story. Sydney’s Sun stated light-heartedly that the crew had left Palm Beach the previous night ‘for a cruise along the coast’, and the Daily Telegraph reported that the abandoned trip was merely a ‘try-out’ ahead of the attempted round-the-world voyage.[iii] It seems likely that this mood shift was initiated by Walter.
The story went quiet for six to eight weeks but was picked up again by the Townsville Daily Bulletin at the end of October.[iv] The Bulletin revealed that the Quest had encountered heavy seas after leaving Newcastle and that William Lowe had fallen ill. Believing him to be seasick, Walter had ploughed on, but on the third day, Lowe was in such a bad way that the Quest again hove-to and Lowe was landed near Kempsey. He was taken to a nearby farmhouse, placed in a butcher’s cart and driven 30 miles to the nearest township. From there he was sent by car to Kempsey and ‘within four minutes of his arrival he was operated on for appendicitis’.
The Quest lay in the river near Kempsey for nearly a month while Walter and Jean waited for Lowe to recover. By the end of October, although ‘progressing favourably’, Lowe was unable to walk, and the decision was made for him to return to Sydney. The Quest, however, continued on towards Brisbane, departing Kempsey on 27th October 1932.
Again, the story faded until the little boat was reported missing – but later sighted off Ballina and Byron Bay – six weeks later.
By January 1933, the Quest had reached Brisbane and the newspapers were singing the praises of Mr Rayner and his wife, who were ‘making a leisurely cruise of the east coast of Australia’.[v] Their plans were indefinite, the Brisbane Courier opined, but in any event, the Sydney couple had decided to delay their trip to the Barrier Reef until a ‘more favourable season’ and were likely to remain in Brisbane for another couple of months.[vi]
By May 1933, the Quest still languished near Brisbane, but Walter hadn’t abandoned his aim to circumnavigate the globe. While he waited for the cyclone season to pass, he installed a heavy-duty engine and refitted the boat, adding two tanks: one for fuel and one for water.
Media interest was rekindled when reporters learned that Walter planned to continue his adventure with Bosun as his sole companion. The Courier described Bosun as an intelligent and splendid-looking dog ‘of no particular pedigree’, and avowed that he would provide ‘good company’ for Walter during the long voyage.[vii] Sydney’s Daily Telegraph went further, publishing a photo of Bosun perched beside Walter on the deck of the Quest.[viii]
On 14th June 1933, after a delay of over six months, the Quest – with Walter, Jean and Bosun onboard – departed Brisbane. The crew stopped briefly at Round Hill, just north of Bundaberg, and spent a few days at ‘Toweran Station’, a property owned by family friends, the Bartons.
The cutter’s next destination was the Barrier Reef, where the little ship’s company stopped at several of the area’s picturesque islands. Walter was a keen amateur photographer, and my grandmother Eve Jenkins (Walter’s sister) kept a dozen or so photos Walter had sent her from that leg of the trip. All of Walter’s photos are either black and white, or sepia. The majority feature typical island landscapes: palm trees, water and vistas of nearby islands floating serenely in a becalmed sea.
Walter and Jean reached Townsville on 24th August 1933, just over a year after they’d departed Palm Beach. There is photographic proof that the Quest made it as far north as Mourilyan, and circumstantial evidence that Jean eventually disembarked at Cairns. But, disappointingly, it seems that Cairns may have been the end of the voyage for Walter as well. The last report of Walter’s escapade seems to have been the Townsville Daily Bulletin’s confirmation that he and Jean had made port in that city.[ix]
After Jean disembarked, she went to stay with her brother, and six months later Walter was living and working on his sister’s property ‘Glenbrook’ near Armidale in New South Wales. The voyage – and all that time alone together – appears to have taken a toll on Walter and Jean’s relationship. By April 1934, the couple was corresponding via divorce lawyers.
Undoubtedly, it was not the ending Walter had envisioned when he set out from Sydney Harbour in August 1932. The trip had ended his marriage, and his ambitious plans to be the first to circumnavigate the globe in such a tiny craft had been scuppered.
However, the experience didn’t dampen Walter’s obsession with seafaring. He served in the Navy during World War II and went on to have a successful maritime career in England after the war.
No information as to the fate of the Quest – or the custody of Bosun – has yet come to light.
Endnote references:
[i] ‘Round the World in Cutter’, Labor Daily (Sydney), 6 August 1932, p 1, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article237038454.
[ii] ‘Quest Hove To – Cutter Sought Tow – Engine Broke Down’, Sun (Sydney), 15 Aug 1932, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article228876088.
[iii] ‘Quest Hove To – Cutter Sought Tow – Engine Broke Down’, Sun (Sydney), ibid; ‘Quest’s Try-out Fails off Coast’, Daily Telegraph, 16 Aug 1932, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article246305454.
[iv] ‘The Quest – Members of Crew Ill’, Townsville Daily Bulletin, 24 Oct 1932, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article61693168.
[v] ‘Leisurely Cruise – Sydney Man and Wife’, Brisbane Courier, 7 January 1933, p 14, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article22162950.
[vi] ‘The Quest’s Crew’, Brisbane Courier (QLD), 7 January 1933, p 16, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article22162896.
[vii] ‘Cruise Round the World’, Brisbane Courier, ibid.
[viii] ‘Adventure Calls’, Daily Telegraph (Sydney), 5 June 1933, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article246233769; Same photos in Mackay’s Daily Mercury, 9 June 1933.
[ix] ‘Mr Rayner, who is in command …’, Townsville Daily Bulletin (QLD), ibid.
Unravelled 
Great story thank you Helen, and the photos are terrific. There appears to be quite a history of sailing within the family. We will have a look to see if we can find out any more information from RPAYC. We have a similar photo of Phil and I at the Percy Islands. I imagine Walter, Jean, William and Bosuns trip north would not have been easy with three crew, let alone two. There are a few sailing boats in Pittwater that are called Quest. Such a good name for a boat if planning to embark upon such a trip. It is a shame luck was against them.
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Thanks Lindy, I was wondering if you might know more about RPAYC. Let me know if you find any interesting info
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