The "Bathtub Sailor," who lost more than 30 pounds for the voyage so he could fit into the tub, didn't make it past Port Angeles.
It was a dream that almost immediately went down the drain.
On Oct. 26, 1954, Roy Bergo pushed off at Edmonds and set out for Alaska — in a bathtub with an outboard motor dangling from its end.
“Rub-a-dub-dub, one man a tub — shoved off for Alaska today,” read the lead story on the front page of The Seattle Times 62 years ago.
He planned to putter about 25 miles each day, and told reporters he had rations of sandwiches and candy bars for the voyage.
Bergo, who lost more than 30 pounds for the voyage so he could fit into the tub, did not carry maps, charts or navigational instruments.
He told reporters he was hoping to pick up a sponsor by the time he reached Port Angeles.
By the time he reached Port Angeles, he’d quit twice. Once, he forsworn the trip in “an outburst of disgust” at Whidbey Island after propeller trouble, before restarting a few days later, The Times reported.
Then, when no financial backers were willing to shower his project with cash, he ditched the tub about a week after the tumultuous trip began.