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                 The ORS Int. is the official adjudicator of ocean rowing records for Guinness World Records

 

David Johnstone. He knew he was not an ordinary run-of-the-mill man, limited by near horizons of domestic contentment and familiar bliss, Johnstone felt an increasing need to prove to himself and to the world the stuff of which he was really made, an implicit acknowledgment of the extraordinary qualities he had long sensed but had not yet translated into comprehensible or recognizable reality. He was unable to make do with a second or third best, another manifestation of his non-conformity. There was no real niche for him in the conventional world.
The Puffin adventure was the challenge he had been seeking.

John Hoare. Outwardly conventional and perhaps less imaginative than Johnstone, he was a romantic with an inbred sense of adventure. He was extremely popular, physically and mentally strong, and although gentle and easy-going, his anger was quickly roused at injustice. Tallying at so many points with Johnstone’s own personality, he was at the same time a perfect foil for the man whose advertisement had evoked the instant response of a parallel adventurous spirit.
 

The conduct of both men in the teeth of monstrous adversity represents heroism of an outstanding order. With ample opportunity and justification on more than one occasion to surrender honourably, the thought simply never entered their heads. They were determined to carry on to the end, an end which they had calmly contemplated might be tragic; they committed themselves to it from the outset and did not flinch when face to face with its reality. Their precondition that nobody should risk his life to save them was fully met.
Johnstone’s and Hoare’s attempt was not worthless.
Their courageous behaviour constitutes an epic in the history of man’s unending struggle against the sea, brilliantly exemplifying the eternal spirit of human adventure. Puffin’s voyage, through the almost miraculous discovery of the Journal, has made a positive contribution to man’s knowledge of the oceans, yielding much unfamiliar information in particular about the capricious Gulf Stream.
The future will see new attempts by brave and adventurous men to row across the Atlantic, and by scholars to investigate the behaviour of the earth’s waters. For them, Johnstone and Hoare have made things easier.

Excerpts from THE PENANCE WAY by Merton Naydler

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The Memorial To Oceanrowers Lost At Sea in Dunlicky Castle, Kilkee, Republic of Ireland
Wild flowers from the garden of The Byrne Family

Photo courtesy of Blath Byrne