Lymington to Greenland

Silent colour rushes of English mountaineer and explorer Bill Tilman bound for Greenland in 1961-62 in search of new mountain challenges on his boat 'Mischief'.

This series of film excerpts show Tilman’s Cutter 'Mischief' preparing to depart from Lymington Harbour on the Solent in Hampshire, southern England, before sailing for West Greenland, visiting the fishing port of Kangamiut and the Kangerlussuatsiaq Fjord, located on the west coast above Nuuk, the capital of Greenland. The sole purpose stated by Tilman for his expeditions was to combine the joys of sailing with climbing.

The “Mischief”, was Tilman’s first Bristol Channel pilot cutter, built in 1906 and purchased by Tilman in the 1954. The following year he sailed her to the Strait of Magellan to cross the Patagonian ice-cap and logged 20,000 miles on this first of his many ocean voyages. Tilman published accounts of his travels to Greenland; ‘Mischief in Greenland’, 1964 and ‘Mostly Mischief’, based on a second expedition in 1963.