Frank Samuelsen and George Harbo
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Frank Samuelsen , born as Gabriel Samuelsen , (1870–1946) and George Harbo , born as Gottleb Harbo Ragnhildrød , (1864–1909) were two Americans of Norwegian descent who were the first to cross the Atlantic in a rowboat in 1896. They named the boat with which the two friends crossed the Atlantic, Fox , after the publisher of The National Police Gazette , which promised them a reward of 10,000 US dollars for successfully crossing the Atlantic. Both friends started in New York on June 6, 1896 and arrived in the Isles of Scilly after only 55 days . Driven by westerly winds, waves and the Gulf Stream , they covered the distance of around 3,000 nautical miles in record time, which has not yet been exceeded in a two-man oar. Their time was not broken until 2010 - 114 years later - by a four oar. On the way on the busy North Atlantic route , they encountered passing ships several times and once took on provisions. From the Isles of Scilly they continued their journey to their actual destination Le Havre , where they were pulled the last stretch across the English Channel by a ship and arrived in Le Havre on the 62nd day after departure from New York.
literature
- David W. Shaw: Conquering the Horizon . Munich 1998, ISBN 3-471-78662-7 .
Newspaper articles
- New York World, Feb 13, 1896, p16.
- New York Herald, 6 Jun 1896, p7.
- New York Herald, 21 Mar 1897, p2.
- National Police Gazette, 22 Aug 1896, p.
- National Police Gazette, Sep 12, 1896, p.
- New York World, Aug 2, 1896, p10.
