Alain Bombard was a French biologist, physician and politician famous for sailing in a small boat across the Atlantic Ocean without provision. He theorized that a human being could very well survive the trip across the ocean without provisions and decided to test his theory himself in order to save thousands of lives of people lost at sea.
Life
On October 19, 1952 Bombard began his solitary trip, after visiting his newborn daughter in France, across the Atlantic for the West Indies. He had sailed in the Atlantic Ocean solo before, from Tangier to Casablanca, and from Casablanca to Las Palmas. However the original plan was to sail across the Atlantic with a friend, English yachtsman Jack Palmer, with whom he sailed just before from Monaco to Menorca, but Jack abandoned Alain in Tangier. Bombard sailed in a Zodiac inflatable boat called l'Hérétique, which was only long, taking only a sextant and almost no provisions. Bombard reports he survived by fishing with a self-made harpoon and hooks and harvesting the surface plankton with a small net. He also drank a limited amount of seawater for a long period on his trip. On the October 23, 4th day of the journey Bombard had to mend a torn old sail, while the backup sail was blown away. He also made a major navigation mistake which made him believe that he was sailing much faster than he actually did. On the 53rd day of the journey he encountered a ship. The crew told him that he was still over short of his goal. However, after the ship's crew offered him a meal, Bombard decided to go on. Bombard reached Barbados December 23, 1952, after of travel. Bombard had lost and was briefly hospitalized. He published a book about his trip entitled "Naufragé Volontaire" in 1953. Bombard's claim was later tested and contested by Hannes Lindemann, a German physician, canoeist and sailing pioneer, although both the French and Taiwanese navies concurred with Bombard's findings, the Taiwanese exercise extending to 134 days. Lindemann wanted to repeat Bombard's trip in order to gain a better understanding of living on salt water and fish, but found that he needed fresh water most days. Lindemann later claimed that Bombard had actually taken along fresh water and consumed it on the ocean, and that he had also been secretly provided further supplies during his voyage. Lindemann's own observations about reactions to scarce fresh water supplies became the basis for the World Health Organization's navigation recommendations. Bombard died in Toulon in 2005 at age 80.
Media appearances
Bombard was featured in an episode of the educational television program3-2-1 Contact in 1986, in which he coaches two of the teenaged cast members on his life-raft survival techniques using a real raft on the open sea.
