March 27, 2005

Jane Simpson of the Scottish Mail on Sunday

Armed with two cans of lager for courage, Kenneth Kerr set out to row across the Atlantic in a tiny 13ft dinghy in a feat he hoped would get him into the history books.
It was the Scot's second attempt to win the record for single-handedly navigating the smallest boat ever rowed over the ocean and he had chosen a particularly treacherous 2,100-mile stretch of sea.
Yet, despite surviving ferocious gales, whale attacks and icebergs. the 28 year-old, who set sail 25 years ago, was never seen again and, to this day, mystery still surrounds his brave attempt to complete one of the last great challenges.

Although the former Royal Navy teacher's vessel - Bass Conqueror - was found off Norway three months after his last radio contact, the Scot's body has never been recovered and theories continue to abound as to his final fate, including the suggestion he may have landed on a remote, uninhabited Scottish island.
The name of the intrepid sailor, from Port Seton in East Lothian, has now joined the ranks of an elite handful of men who have attempted the perilous crossing in inconceivably tiny rowing boats over the years.
Kerr left Corner Brook in Newfoundland on 21st May 1980, hoping to top the west-to-east Atlantic record, held by a 20ft boat.
As well as tins of calorie-rich food, sunglasses, basic nautical equipment and blankets, he took the two cans of lager, informing friends he planned to drink one at the half-way point in his journey and the other to toast reaching Ireland.

The last person ever to lay eyes on the communications expert was the captain of a cargo boat who gave him fresh food and water on August 13th in a brief encounter some 550 miles away from his destination.

Logs detailing the exchange, which took place before Kerr rowed into a force10 gale, report him telling the skipper of the Dorsetshire ; 'thank you for your concern, captain, and also for your food and water, but like yourself, I must be on my way now.'
Despite the bad weather he survived the storm and continued his mammoth lone row for the next two months getting to between 100 and 150 miles from Ireland before apparently vanishing.

Just a year earlier Kerr had nearly died in a carbon-copy attempt but was rescued by a German container ship after running into severe difficulties 58 days on from leaving Newfoundland. Bass Conqueror - a tiny, flat-bottomed Orkney spinner - journeyed on alone and was washed up on the coast of Ireland covered in barnacles five months later.

However, on his ill-fated re-try, the Scot was last heard from in a faint snippet of a radio message, picked up by a sailing boat, giving his bearing on 25th October 1980 - at a stage when he should have reached Ireland based on the average speeds he had been travelling.
And although some believe he could have been washed up on a remote island, most fear he simply perished in raging waves after becoming separated from his vulnerable craft, powered by just two oars and heavily modified after the first aborted mission.

His vision of rowing from Canada to the west of Ireland, which he estimated would take him 80 days, was inspired by the feat of John Ridgway and Chay Blyth who in 1966 rowed jointly in a 20 foot boat, English Rose 111.

Speaking ahead of the 1979 effort, Kerr, who spent Ј3,000 of his own money attempting to win the record, admitted: 'I am not going for the fastest time . . rather I am attempting to create a record by making the trip in the smallest craft.
'If you are going to the trouble of making such an attempt you have got to do something dramatic. I think I have done that by cutting back on the size of the craft.'

The Scot, who left the navy because he 'fancied a change', certainly achieved the dramatic as his mission, which was sponsored by Tennent Caledonian Breweries, is still spoken of in nautical circles.

He was one of seven ocean rowers believed to have perished at sea who were commemorated in a ceremony in the west of Ireland two years ago, where more than one ocean rowing boat has come ashore over the years.
However, what sets his tale apart is the sheer minuteness of the vessel he had hoped would get him across one of the world's most feared oceans.

Even Bass Conqueror itself - named after Kerr's favourite drink and HMS Conqueror submarine on which he served - added to the mystery when it was recovered by a Norwegian rescue team near Stavanger on January 26th 1981.

Unlike the previous occasion when it had been washed up in Ireland encrusted in barnacles, this time round it was completely free of the creatures, as if it had been scraped clean - something which continues to baffle experts to this day.

And notches on the bottom of the craft which Kerr religiously carved to symbolise each week at sea mysteriously stopped at a point representing 119 days into his epic journey, yet radio evidence exists to show he was alive after 156 days.

Last night Jon Addison, curator of the Scottish Maritime Museum in Irvine, Ayrshire, where Bass Conqueror has been on display since 1986, said he doubted the mystery would ever be solved but admitted the story continued to fuel all sorts of theories.

He explained: 'Unlike a big ship which sinks and is later found full of clues, we have Kenneth's boat in our possession and it offered precious few indicators as to what exactly happened to him.

'Personally, I don't see him having survived. You are talking about one man and a small rowing boat in a particularly nasty stretch of the Atlantic ocean known for its bad storms.

'My theory is he capsized and became separated from the Bass Conqueror, she would have gone one way and he the other. In high waves he wouldn't even have been able to see the boat.

'The vessel ended up in Norway which tells you how strong the currents were so goodness knows where he could have been swept off to. There is a strong likelihood his body became water logged and was eaten. There are sharks, whales and other scavenging fish out there.

'But it is a story with a lot of unanswered questions and one which continues to intrigue people to this day. When visitors actually see how small the boat is, they can't believe anyone could ever have considered not just sailing but actually rowing it across the Atlantic.

'Some think Kenneth was foolish but, personally, I think what he attempted to achieve amounted to bravery. To this day no one has managed to beat the record, as far as I am aware.'

On October 5th 1980 The Royal Corps of Signals picked up a message that his water was low but the last contact came twenty days later - 156 days after Kerr first set sail, when an expedition ship, Eye of The Wind, heard the barely audible statement 'Bearing 123 degrees'.
However, as no grid reference was received the information left coast-guards unable to translate its context as they did not know where he had come from.

A search was launched but no trace of the Scot was ever found and is now officially classed as lost at sea.

Writing about his first attempt, he earlier admitted being pounded by 45 foot-high waves and coming close to death, revealing:
'When I was rowing there was nothing beneath my feet but the Atlantic. It was icy - there were icebergs and it seemed the time of year for whales to emerge. They plunged underneath the craft and nearly killed me.'

When Kerr's dinghy was recovered for the second and final time, it contained his transmitting hand and head set, his hot water bottle - still containing the water he himself last put into it - along with what appears to be a lifeline with knots to provide a hand grip. The end of this line was severed, possibly an indicator the fatal moment he and the Bass Conqueror went separate ways.

Mr Addison added: 'The notches and the fact the boat was so clean are two of the biggest prevailing mysteries. Why did he stop carving the notches?
Had something happened and if it had, then it is a mystery why he didn't use his emergency radio transmitter beacon.?
'Also Bass Conqueror had tests carried out on her after she was found in Norway for evidence of anti-fouling agents, which are painted on larger vessels to keep them free of barnacles and none was found. The boat looked like it had been scraped clean but why would Kenneth have scraped all the barnacles off at sea? It makes no sense.
'I think the answers to these questions and more will always remain a secret and people will just have to imagine and guess at the truth.'