The madman on the rubber boat proved that the human will is stronger than the sea

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Shipwrecked victims are not killed by the harsh elements of the sea, but by their own fears and weaknesses. To prove this, French physician Alain Bombard crossed the Atlantic in an inflatable boat with no food or water supplies.

In May 1951, the French trawler "Notre Dame de Peyrag" left the port of Equiem. At night, the ship lost its course and was thrown by the waves onto the ledge of the Carnot breakwater. The ship sank, but almost the entire crew managed to put on their vests and leave the ship. The sailors had to swim a short distance to reach the stairs on the wall of the pier. Imagine the surprise of the port doctor Alain Bombard when in the morning the rescuers pulled 43 corpses ashore! People who found themselves in the water simply did not see the point in fighting the elements and drowned, staying afloat.

Stock of knowledge

The doctor who witnessed the tragedy could not boast of great experience. He was only twenty-six years old. While still studying at the university, Alain was interested in the capabilities of the human body in extreme conditions. He collected a mass of documented facts, when daredevils survived on rafts and boats, in cold and hot weather, with a flask of water and a can of canned food on the fifth, tenth and even thirtieth day after the crash. And then he put forward a version that it is not the sea that kills people, but his own fear and despair.

The sea wolves only laughed at the arguments of yesterday's student. “Boy, you only saw the sea from the pier, but you get into serious questions,” the ship's doctors arrogantly declared. And then Bombar decided to experimentally prove his case. He conceived a voyage as close as possible to the conditions of a sea disaster.

Before trying his hand, Alain decided to stock up on knowledge. The Frenchman spent six months, from October 1951 to March 1952, in the laboratories of the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco.

He studied the chemical composition of sea water, types of plankton, the structure of marine fish. The Frenchman learned that more than half of the saltwater fish is fresh water. And fish meat contains less salt than beef. So, Bombar decided, you can quench your thirst with the juice squeezed out of the fish. He also found out that sea water is also suitable for drinking. True, in small doses. And the plankton that whales feed on is quite edible.

One on one with the ocean

With his adventurous idea, Bombar captivated two more people. But due to the size of the rubber vessel (4, 65 by 1, 9 m) I took only one of them with me.

The boat itself was a tightly inflated rubber horseshoe, the ends of which were connected by a wooden stern. The bottom, on which lay a light wooden flooring (elani), was also made of rubber. On the sides were four inflatable floats. The boat was to be accelerated by a quadrangular sail with an area of three square meters. The name of the ship matched the navigator himself - "Heretic."

However, Bombar nevertheless took something into the boat: a compass, a sextant, navigational books and photographic accessories. There was also a first aid kit, a box of water and food on board, which were sealed to exclude temptation. They were intended as a last resort.

Alain's partner was supposed to be English yachtsman Jack Palmer. Together with him, Bombar made a test voyage on the Heretic from Monaco to the island of Minorca for seventeen days. The experimenters recalled that already on that voyage they experienced a deep feeling of fear and helplessness in front of the elements. But the result of the campaign was assessed by everyone in their own way. Bombar was inspired by the victory of his will over the sea, and Palmer decided that he would not tempt fate twice. At the appointed time of departure, Palmer simply did not appear at the port, and Bom-bar had to go to the Atlantic alone.

On October 19, 1952, a motor yacht towed the Heretica from the port of Puerto de la Luz in the Canary Islands to the ocean and unhooked the cable. The north-east trade wind blew into a small sail, and the Heretic set off towards the unknown.

It is worth noting that Bombar made the experiment more difficult by choosing a medieval sailing route from Europe to America. In the middle of the 20th century, ocean routes ran hundreds of miles from Bombar's path, and he simply did not have a chance to feed himself at the expense of good sailors.

Contrary to nature

On one of the first nights of the voyage, Bombar was caught in a terrible storm. The boat was filled with water, and only the floats kept it on the surface. The Frenchman tried to scoop up the water, but he did not have a scoop, and it was pointless to do it with his palms. Had to adjust the hat. By morning the sea had calmed down, and the traveler perked up.

A week later, the wind tore the sail that propelled the boat. Bombar put a new one, but after half an hour the wind carried him into the waves. Alena had to repair the old one, and under it he swam for two months.

The traveler got food as planned. He tied a knife to a stick and with this "harpoon" killed the first prey - the dorado fish. He made fishhooks from her bones. In the open ocean, the fish were not frightened and grabbed everything that fell into the water. The flying fish itself flew into the boat, killing itself when it hit the sail. By morning, the Frenchman found up to fifteen dead fish in the boat.

Bombar's other "treat" was plankton, which tasted like krill paste, but looked unsightly. Occasionally, birds were caught on the hook. Their traveler ate raw, throwing only feathers and bones overboard.

During the voyage, Alain drank sea water for seven days, and the rest of the time he squeezed the "juice" from the fish. It was also possible to collect the dew that settled on the sail in the morning. After almost a month of sailing, a gift from heaven awaited him - a downpour that presented fifteen liters of fresh water.

Extreme trekking was hard for him. The sun, salt and coarse food led to the fact that the whole body (even under the nails) was covered with small abscesses. Bombar opened abscesses, but they were in no hurry to heal. The skin on the legs also peeled off in shreds, and on four fingers the nails fell out. As a doctor, Alain kept track of his health and recorded everything in the logbook.

When it rained for five days in a row, Bombar began to suffer greatly from excess moisture. Then, when calm and heat settled, the Frenchman decided that this was his last hours, and wrote a will. And when he was about to give his soul to God, the coast appeared on the horizon.

Having lost twenty-five kilograms of weight in sixty-five days of sailing, on December 22, 1952, Alain Bombar reached the island of Barbados. In addition to proving his theory of survival at sea, the Frenchman became the first person to cross the Atlantic Ocean in a rubber boat.

After the heroic voyage, the name of Alain Bombara was recognized by the whole world. But he himself considered the main result of this journey to be not collapsed glory. And the fact that throughout his life he received more than ten thousand letters, the authors of which thanked him with the words: "If it were not for your example, we would have died in the harsh waves of the deep sea."