Posted by Peter Roche on July 16, 2001 at 20:17:02 from 62.64.191.122:
I have received a very sad message today regarding the tragic death in a sailing accident of Ben Wilson, an American Tar.
There is some uncertainty as to how he died; if was first thought that he had been swept overboard from his Arrowhead daysailer, which he had built himself, but is now seeems he may have suffered a masive heart attack and fell over the transom.
Ben was a lovely man; I met him way back at the beginnings of TARS in October 1991 when the East Anglian group arranged a day out from Wroxham. At the end of the day Ben invited us all to join him and his lovely, outgoing, effervesant wife Jan for a days sailing on the Sunday. He kept the best part of his invitation to the last; they had chartered the pleasure wherry White Moth! Unfortunately? only three of us could take Ben up on his generous offer, but that was the type of man Ben was. Later in our friendship he invited me and Valerie to visit them in the States to sail around the Florida Keys, sadly we never went.
Ben was active in many fields; boatbuilding; boat designing, and the most extraordinary aspect of his multi-faceted life was his involvement with the design and building of artificial limbs. I've told elsewhere of our second meeting when he looked at me, quizically, and said "You walk very well with that PTB" - a PTB is a very lightweight artificial leg - Astounded I asked how he knew, "I was part of the team that designed and developed the original."
Ben was a veteran of WWII Army Air Force and his ashes are eligible for placement in Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors (horses, caisson, military band, escort, etc) but scattering over water also a possibility. He was a fine sailor, and departing this brief life while doing something one loves and then having ones ashes scattered over the water is a fitting end.
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