Vito Dumas


Vito Dumas was an Argentine single-handed sailor.
On 27 June 1942, while the world was in the depths of World War II, he set out on a single-handed circumnavigation of the Southern Ocean. He left Buenos Aires in June, sailing LEHG II, a 31-foot ketch an acronym representing "four names which marked my life". He had only the most basic and makeshift gear; he had no radio, for fear of being shot as a spy, and was forced to stuff his clothes with newspaper to keep warm.
With only three landfalls, the legs of his trip were the longest that had been made by a single-hander, and in the most ferocious oceans on the Earth; but most of all, it was a powerful retort to a world which had chosen to divide itself by war. He recounted the experience in his book Los Cuarenta Bramadores: La Vuelta al Mundo Por la "Ruta Imposible".
He donated his boat to the Argentine Navy for training, but after a few years it was neglected, and was finally wrecked against a pier at the entrance of La Plata's port in 1966. A wealthy Argentine yachtsman paid to have it restored and donated it to the Argentina Naval Museum in Tigre, a coastal river town on a backwater of the River Plate. The LEHG II is now on display in Tigre, which is a short train ride from Buenos Aires.
Dumas was the inspiration for an Argentine tango entitled , written by Jaime Yanin and José Horacio Staffolani. It was recorded in Buenos Aires on 5 August 1943 by the Orquesta típica of Carlos di Sarli, featuring on vocals.