Thread: How's this for a story!

Copied from Sean McGowan's website - he's one of the competitors currently rowing across the Atlantic ... and he's racing solo!

The first ocean to be deliberately rowed was the Atlantic by Frank Samuelsen and George Harbo on the 6th of June 1896. The two men were from Norway and had immigrated to America, not happy with what they found they decided to go home and with that the pair left Battery Park, Manhattan on 6 June 1896 arriving in Le Havre, France, 55 days and 13 hours later having covered 3,250 miles.
To family, friends, and those intimate with the sea, the plan appeared suicidal; but to the two men, the crossing represented a way out of lives offering little promise. Their hope was to attract worldwide attention and lucrative lecture and exhibition fees if they succeeded.
They rowed in a tiny eighteen-foot boat with no sail, no steam engine, not even a rudder to aid them as they struggled with storms, a capsize, hunger, relentless fatigue, great mental hardship, and near collisions with ships, whales, and an iceberg. Sadly, their dream of fame and fortune eluded them, and for more than one hundred years -- until the publication of their logs in book format -- they remained unsung and unknown heroes.

I can just imagine the conversation.
"Cor Frank, this New York's a dive. I'm going home. Want to come?"
"You had to invite me, I'm the only one with a boat. You pack the sardines and I'll see if I can find a set of oars for you."


Stern stuff indeed.


Richard