ATELIER OSMUNDSEN BRONZES FROM THE SEA

        New York Times

Aug. 1, 1896

 

HAVE ROWED ACROSS THE OCEAN

____________

 

Harbo  and Samuelsen Reach the Scilly Islands Worn Out

 

LONDON, Aug 1.—A dispatch from the signal station on the Scilly Islands station on the Scilly Islands states that the rowboat Fox passed there at 11 o’clock this morning after passage of fifty-five days from New York.  The two occupants of the boat were well but somewhat exhausted from the effects of their long row.  The masters of the Norwegian Bark Sito and Eugen, both of whom spoke the Fox at sea, examined the boat when they spoke her and gave certificates that oars were the only propelling power used.

_____________

 The Fox started from New York for Havre on June 6.  The boat was 18 feet 4 inches long and 5 feet wide and carried provisions for sixty days.  The distance from New York to Havre is 2,250 miles.  The adventurous oarsmen who have almost successfully completed their task are George Harbo and Frank Samuelsen of Branchport, N.J.  They are the first men to cross the Atlantic in a rowboat.

Harbo is a navigator, having studied at a sailor’s school in Brevig, Norway, his native town.  He went to sea when sixteen years old, and after two years on long voyages came to America.  He had since sailed on coasters and fishing vessels and he held a pilot license for this harbor.

 

He superintended the construction of the boat in which the voyage across the Atlantic was made.  She was built in Branchport and is pointed at both ends.  A bit of canvas buttoning over the sides was the only shelter provided for the men when sleeping.

To avoid being carried away from the boat in case of an upset in bad weather, the men had lines looped about their waists and made fast to the seats in which they sat.

They did upset once, as reported by the Sito, and lost a few articles.

 The men said when they left that they expected to be forty to forty-five days to Scilly Islands, and they took 500 pounds of canned goods and 60 gallons of water.

 

Battery boatmen were greatly surprised yesterday when they learned that the rowers had reached the other side.  They had all given best wishes to the adventurers, out predicted to a man that their destination was Davy Jones Locker.

Pdf file for download or printing