By Theo Emery
Associated Press
BOSTON- The family
of a trans-Atlantic rower who was plucked from the ocean by a U.S. Navy
frigate and returned to New England said the man has vowed to continue
his seafaring adventures, despite the loss of his boat.
The USS Doyle was en route to a maritime festival in Salem last week
when it came across rower Theodore Rezvoy, who had signaled the vessel
in hopes that the crew had a painkiller on board. The crew, concerned
that he might be a terrorist, searched him and the boat, then later cut
his boat loose and brought him to Salem.
''Basically, he's one more adventurer who's going to carry on with his
adventure, and this is part of it,'' Kenneth F. Crutchlow, Rezvoy's
stepfather and the executive director of the London-based Ocean Rowing
Society, said Wednesday.
Rezvoy, 35, a one-time Soviet army private, had previously made a
successful southern Atlantic crossing in a rowboat.
On July 2, he left the Manhattan Sailing Club in his 23-foot yellow
rowboat for the 3,256-mile voyage from New York to Brest, France, a
roughly $100,000 trip funded in part by his native Ukraine.
But he soon ran into problems, including foul weather that capsized his
boat several times. Wind pushed him south off his planned route, and he
began feeling pain from his liver.
On July 10, when he was about 250 miles east of New York, he signaled
for help from the approaching frigate to ask for a painkiller, but was
not planning to return to the United States. When the Doyle stopped, he
was searched, and divers checked the bottom of his boat, thinking he
might be a terrorist.
''These days, ever since 9-11, security of vessels and the high seas is
paramount, so you don't want to take any chances. He and his boat were
searched, to make sure that there weren't any explosives on board,''
said U.S. Navy spokesman Lt. Paul Brawley.
He was assured that the boat would be returned to him, but later was
told that the boat had been cut adrift. Sailors handed him the beacon
for the boat back in Salem, according to his mother, Tatiana
Rezva-Crutchlow.
''The first thing he told them (was) 'I can't be separated from my
boat.' They told him the boat would be fine, and when they cut it off,
he was very surprised,'' she said.
Brawley said the crew tried to get the boat on board; when they
couldn't, it was cut loose, he said.
Rezva-Crutchlow said that despite the loss of the boat, her son harbored
no ill will toward the U.S. Navy, and understood their concerns about
terrorism.
''Sincerely we do understand,'' she said. ''Teddy dedicated his row to
the firemen and police who died on Sept. 11. He said nothing has
changed.'' |
