George Washington traveled widely in what would become the United States, but he left the North American mainland only once, when he sailed to Barbados with his half-brother Lawrence in 1751. The adventure left an indelible imprint on him.

By Jack D. Warren, Jr.

Lawrence Washington was suffering from tuberculosis and was advised to spend the winter in the tropics. His wife, Anne, could not go with him. The couple had already lost three infants and were not willing to risk their only surviving child on a long sea voyage. Nineteen-year-old George Washington, his half-brother, agreed to go, and the adventure left an indelible imprint on him.

His life, up to that moment, had been completely provincial. Until he was 16, his social experience was almost entirely confined to the Northern Neck of Virginia. At 19 he had never been farther than 200 miles from the place he was born. Except for crossing the Potomac River in Maryland once or twice, he has never been outside Virginia. his vision of the world, literally and figuratively, was severely limited. His trip to Barbados would offer him his first glimpse of a wider world.

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The Washington brothers sailed about September 19, 1751. The precise date is not clear, because George Washington's Barbados diary-- the chief source of information about the trip-- is badly mutilated. The brothers apparently sailed on the Success, a small trading sloop. The voyage, the only long sea voyage of Washington's life, took more than six weeks on what George Washington called the "fickle & Merciliss Ocean" (a flight from Washington, D.C., to Barbados, now takes little more than six hours).

Although only fragments survive, a diary kept on the trip by George Washington gives hints of how the two Virginians passed their time, both on the ship and on the island. As they made their way to Barbados, Washington recorded the weather, details about sailing, and the fish they caught—or tried to catch. These included dolphin, pilot fish, shark, barracudas (tigerfish). Washington also occupied his time at sea learning the practical science of navigation-- skills that came easily to a surveyor.

Like everyone else on board, he was surprised when the crew unexpectedly sighted the east coast of Barbados at four o'clock on the morning of November 2, at a time when the captain's calculations placed the ship nearly 150 leagues to the east. George Washington reported that everyone was "greatly alarm'd with the cry of Land."

The fear was justified. The east coast of Barbados is rocky, bounded by coral reefs, and pounded by surf. The Washingtons were lucky that the crew saw the island in the night, or else Success might have been driven onto the reefs and destroyed. Success avoided these misfortunes, rounded the south end of Barbados, and anchored in Carlisle Bay later on November 2.