Aylward Edward "A.E." Dingle was a sailor and writer. He was born in Oxford, England, in 1874. He died in Cornwall in 1947.

Sailor

He spent 22 years at sea, and was shipwrecked five times. Ships sailed on: *

Thermopylae (clipper) ''Thermopylae'' was an extreme Composite ship, composite clipper ship built in 1868 by Walter Hood & Co of Aberdeen, to the design of Bernard Waymouth of London. Construction ''Thermopylae'' was built for the Aberdeen Line, which was founde ...

Castaway on St Paul Island

In 1893, Dingle joined a salvage. The schooner Black Pearl sailed from Mahe, the Seychelle Islands to the Crozets, seeking gold that had gone down with the immigrant ship Strathmore. They found the sunken wreck, and its strongbox, but were unable to remove it. Eventually, they were driven off by gales. On the return voyage, the Black Pearl was wrecked near St. Paul Island. Both crew survived, though the Black Pearl was completely lost. They survived twelve weeks on the island, eating rabbit, goat and fish. Exploring, they found gold from a buried 1870s wreck. On the first morning of the twelfth week, they were rescued by a French bark.

Writer

He wrote pulp fiction for magazines such as ''Adventure'' and ''

Blue Book A blue book or bluebook is an almanac, buyer's guide or other compilation of statistics and information. The term dates back to the 15th century, when large blue velvet-covered books were used for record-keeping by the Parliament of England. The ...

'' under the names 'Captain A. E. Dingle' and Sinbad. In New York, he shared a flat with writer

Gordon MacCreagh Gordon MacCreagh (1889 in Perth, IndianaEllis, Doug. ''The Best of Adventure, Volume 2 - 1913-1914''. Black Dog Books, 2012. (p.13,18-9). – 1953) was an American writer. MacCreagh was the son of Scottish parents, possibly born in Perth, Ind ...

and his pet python Billy. He sold his first story, "Blind Luck on St. Paul", to ''Adventure'' for somewhere between forty-five and sixty-five dollars, and it appeared in the January 1913 issue. He wrote an autobiography, ''A Modern Sinbad'', which sold well in the UK. In 1912, the new editor of ''Adventure'',

Arthur Sullivant Hoffman Arthur Sullivant Hoffman (September 28, 1876 – March 15, 1966) was an American magazine editor. Hoffman is best known for editing the acclaimed pulp magazine ''Adventure'' from 1912 to 1927, Bleiler, Richard. "A History of Adventure Magazine", in ...

co-founded the

Adventurers' Club of New York The Adventurers' Club of New York was an adventure-oriented private men's club founded in New York City in 1912 by Arthur Sullivant Hoffman, editor of the popular pulp magazine ''Adventure''. There were 34 members at the first meeting. In its seco ...

. The first arrivals for the first meeting were a group of five: Dingle, Hoffman, Hoffman's assistant

Sinclair Lewis Harry Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885 – January 10, 1951) was an American writer and playwright. In 1930, he became the first writer from the United States (and the first from the Americas) to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, which was ...

, and two others. Dingle was first through the door and forever after claimed to be the club's first member. Dingle remained an active participant in the club for the remainder of his life. In 1942, he was a guest on BBC Radio's

Desert Island Discs ''Desert Island Discs'' is a radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It was first broadcast on the BBC Forces Programme on 29 January 1942. Each week a guest, called a " castaway" during the programme, is asked to choose eight recordings (usu ...

, perhaps the programme's only experienced castaway.

Selected works

* "Blind Luck on St. Paul" (1913) * "To Make or Break" (1918) * "The Pirate Woman" (1918) * "Gold Out of Celebes" (1920) * ''A Modern Sinbad'' (1933) * "Spin: A Yarn Sailor" (1934) * "Sinister Eden" (1934) * "Red Saunders: The Chronicle of a Genial Outcast" (1934) * "Not Wisely" (1936) * "Mary: First Mate" (1937) * "Nor Breed Nor Birth" (1937) * "Mock Star" (1938) * "Nita of Martinique" (1938) * "Adrift" (1939) * "The Bomb Ship" (1942) * "Pirates May Fly" (1943) * "Old Glory" (1945) * "Black Joker" (1946) * "Reckless Tide" (1947) * "The Petrel's Path" (1947) * "The Corpse Came Back" (1948) * "Out of the Blue" (1948)

References

External links

Short autobiography, written 1925

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dingle A. E. Male sailors Pulp fiction writers 1874 births 1947 deaths Castaways