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THE great-nephew of Rommel, the German
second world war general known as the Desert Fox, was last night rescued
from an attempt to row solo across the Atlantic.
Calling himself the Oceanic Fox, Andreas Rommel, 34, was lifted to
safety to a nearby ship from his 23ft vessel the Lady Georgia, 420 miles
east of St John's, Newfoundland, after being hit by a tropical storm.
Attempting to be the first German to cross an ocean alone in a rowing
boat, he set off in July from Cape Cod in the US to travel more than
3000 miles to Land's End. He was 47 days into the three-month crossing
when he was forced to call for help.
The first news that the journey had come to an abrupt halt was picked up
by RAF Kinloss in Morayshire.
Halifax coastguard in Canada organised the search-and-rescue operation.
Mr Rommel was taken on board the Federal Elbe, a Canadian bulk carrier,
in a rescue operation in difficult conditions. His boat was recovered
and taken on to the ship.
During the tropical storm his boat had capsized, coastguards said, and
taken on water. Mr Rommel was able to right the vessel and activate his
distress beacon. He was reported to be well after his 11-hour ordeal.
Andrew Caines, a coastguard at Halifax, Nova Scotia, said that despite
earlier reports that the boat was breaking up, the vessel had taken on a
lot of water in 15ft waves.
According to ocean rowing experts, Mr Rommel departed dangerously late
in the season. While there was favourable weather off the coast of the
US at the time, conditions had been expected to be much worse if Mr
Rommel had arrived off the English coast on schedule, according to
Kenneth Crutchlow, executive director of the Ocean Rowing Society. He
added: "This man is a gambler."
Though this was Mr Rommel's first attempt at ocean rowing, and his boat
had never undergone sea trials, the transatlantic passage is just the
first of a series of rows designed to take the adventurer across the
Indian Ocean starting in May 2005, and across the Pacific Ocean from
Japan to San Francisco in 2006. He planned to be the first solo rower to
cross three oceans. |
