SCVHistory.com | Scott & Ruth Newhall Prepare to Sail Around World, 1936.

Twenty-somethings Scott and Ruth Newhall strike a Kennedyesque pose in 1936 (before there was such a thing) as they prepare for a "three-year adventure" circumnavigating the globe in a 42-foot sailboat.

While Ruth's legs command the viewer's attention, this is actually a rare view of Scott's lower extremities. Their three-year trip was cut short when Scott suffered a mishap that cost him his right leg. Ruth writes:

[We] sailed for nearly a year along the coast of Mexico, making frequent stops while I tried to strengthen my feeble navigational skills. ... During the stormy season we parked our boat in a tropical port and bought a couple of bony horses to ride over the mountains in search of a reported lost Aztec gold mine. We never found the mine, but one night Scott's mare stopped to eat some poor Indian's corn. Scott, exasperated, kicked the mare. She kicked him back, launching a bone infection that not long afterward landed him in a Mexico City hospital, and then back home to San Francisco, where most of his right leg was amputated.

Ultimately it didn't crimp his style. He'd gotten a job as a summer replacement photographer at the San Francisco Chronicle in 1934; he would go on to become the highly successful editor of the Chronicle, beating William Randolph Hearst's Examiner in the circulation game. While still at its helm, in 1963 he bought a small-town paper of his own in an place familiar to his great-grandfather, town founder Henry Mayo Newhall. After an unsuccessful run for San Francisco mayor in 1971, Scott and his bride would move to Piru and continue running the Newhall Signal newspaper until 1988.

Cutline to photo No. LW2849 (6.5x8.5 inches, BW glossy) —

INTERNATIONAL NEWS PHOTOS — SAN FRANCISCO BUREAU
SLUG (SCOTT NEWHALL AND MRS. NEWHALL) WILL CIRCLE WORLD IN SMALL BOAT

Berkeley, California .. Around the world with sailboat and camera —

A young Berkeley society couple will embark on such a three-year adventure.

Alone, they will sail the "Mermaid," a 42-foot ketch.

The seafaring pair are Scott Newhall, 23-year-old photographer, and his wife Ruth, 24. He is a son of the late Almer M. Nehwall, San Francisco Chamber of Commerce president.

The ketch is stored with a food supply sufficient for two months at sea, including 180 gallons of water and 15 cases of canned stuffs.

Santa Barbara will be their first port, Mr. and Mrs. Newhall said. After that the course will take them to Peru, then south through the Straits of Magellan, from where they will head for the west coast of Africa. The Mediterranean, Indian Ocean and South Seas are next on their itinerary. They will sail home via the Orient.

Photo shows Scott Newhall and Mrs. Newhall.

4-6-1936

Cutline to photo No. LW2850 (7x9 inches, BW glossy) —

SF 343757

COUPLE PLAN WORLD CRUISE IN THIS VESSEL

The 42-foot ketch Mermaid in which Mr. and Mrs. Scott Newhall, young San Francisco, Calif., couple, plan a world cruise. Newhall's navigation experience is limited. The Mermaid has auxiliary engine power.

Credit Line (ACME) 4/8/1936

LW2849 (Scott & Ruth Newhall) and LW2850 (sailboat): 9600 dpi jpegs from original wire photos purchased 2016 by Leon Worden.

SCOTT AND RUTH NEWHALL & FAMILY