Word: simonsens
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Another case is that of Captain Svend T. Simonsen, who was the subject of a Business story (Feb. 2). The story noted how Simonsen, who emigrated to the U.S. at 15, had taught himself English and sailing, then taught others navigation while in the military service, before setting up a mail-order course in the nautical skill a year and a half ago. The story, said Simonsen, "completely changed the lives, fates and fortunes of the Simonsen family and many other people...
Until TIME'S story ran, Captain Simonsen, his wife and a staff of three were able to handle the courses in a modest office in Santa Barbara, cutting stencils and running off lessons on a mimeograph machine. As a result of the story, their mail tripled, monthly enrollment in the navigation course more than doubled, franchise and translation requests came in from Europe and Africa, and sales of a sextant they supply to students went up dramatically. The Simonsens are now expanding business to include a "Nautical Book a Month Club," an air-navigation course, and sales of other...
...just a year and a half ago that Simonsen wrote a $32 check to pay for a student-soliciting advertisement in Yachting magazine. The fact that at the time his school existed only in his imagination was no deterrent. When the first student signed up, Simonsen recalls, "I not only wrote each lesson as we went along, but I also cut the stencils and ran them off on the mimeograph...
...Simonsen had quite a lot more than imagination going for him. He composed his lessons out of a wealth of experience. After emigrating to the U.S. at 15, he taught himself English by laboriously translating an 800-page Danish novel with the aid of dictionaries and a thesaurus. Later, while studying civil engineering at New York University, he began sailing for recreation, and set out to teach himself seaman ship. During World War II, he was tapped to teach navigation for the Army's Transportation Corps in the U.S. and Australia. After the war, Simonsen sailed as a captain...
Though free navigation courses are offered by the Coast Guard's Power Squadrons, Simonsen correctly guessed that many aspiring boatmen would prefer studying in their own homes, and at their own speed. To accommodate people who "want to buy a boat this winter and sail it to Hawaii next summer," he devised two simplified courses in celestial and coastwise navigation, both of which can be completed in as little as three months...