Alain Bombard - Wikipedia

Jump to content

Search

Search

Donate

Create account

Log in

Personal tools

Donate

Create account

Log in

Alain Bombard

22 languages

العربية<br>مصرى<br>تۆرکجه<br>Català<br>Čeština<br>Чӑвашла<br>Deutsch<br>Esperanto<br>Eesti<br>فارسی<br>Français<br>Gaeilge<br>Հայերեն<br>Ido<br>Italiano<br>Polski<br>Русский<br>Türkçe<br>Українська<br>Oʻzbekcha / ўзбекча<br>Volapük<br>中文

Edit links

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

French medical doctor and adventurer (1924–2005)

For the French conductor, see Alain Lombard.

[[Biology]]"},"work_institutions":{"wt":""},"alma_mater":{"wt":""},"doctoral_advisor":{"wt":""},"doctoral_students":{"wt":""},"known_for":{"wt":"[[Survival skills]]"},"influences":{"wt":""},"influenced":{"wt":""},"prizes":{"wt":""},"signature":{"wt":""}},"i":0}}]}'>Alain Bombard<br>Born(1924-10-27)27 October 1924<br>Paris, France<br>Died19 July 2005(2005-07-19) (aged 80)<br>Toulon, France<br>Known forSurvival skillsScientific career FieldsMedicine<br>Biology

Alain Bombard (French pronunciation: [alɛ̃ bɔ̃baʁ]; Paris, 27 October 1924 – Paris, 19 July 2005) was a French biologist, physician and politician, famous for sailing across the Atlantic Ocean in a small boat without provisions. In 1951, while working as a physician, he was unable to save the victims of a shipwreck. Motivated by this experience and hoping to save future lives, he theorized that it was possible to survive at sea for an extended period by living off the ocean. To test his theory, Bombard decided to sail across the Atlantic in an inflatable Zodiac bringing no food and water.

He was a Member of the European Parliament from the Socialist Party for France from 1981 to 1994.

Biography<br>[edit]

Born in Paris to a medical family on 27 October 1924, Alain Bombard later became a physician.[1][2] He grew interested in techniques for survival at sea after being unable to save the victims of a shipwreck.[2] In a preliminary test of his theories in 1951, he attempted to swim the English Channel on a diet of only butter, but he failed and needed rescue.[1] He later studied at the Institut océanographique in Monaco, where he concluded that survival was possible by drinking limited quantities of seawater and fluids pressed from raw fish, in addition to eating fish and plankton.[1][2] Determined to prove this theory, he planned to sail across the Atlantic in a small boat bringing no food and water.

Bombard began his journey in stages, first sailing from Tangier to Casablanca ( 13–20 August) and then to Las Palmas (24 August – 3 September). The voyage was briefly interrupted when he flew back to Paris for the birth of his child. On 19 October 1952, Bombard departed Las Palmas to begin the main trans-Atlantic crossing, heading for the West Indies. He sailed in a Zodiac inflatable boat named l'Hérétique ("the heretic"), which was a mere 4.5 metres (15 ft) long. For the journey, he took only a sextant and primitive fishing gear. He also had emergency food and water provisions that were sealed by a notary, to be opened only if necessary; the seal was never broken.[1] The boat was the same type that would later contribute to the fame of his friend Jacques-Yves Cousteau. The successful voyage also turned out to be excellent marketing for Zodiac, as public interest and sales increased substantially afterward.[2]

To survive, Bombard fished with a self-made harpoon and hooks and harvested surface plankton with a small net. The fish were a source of both food and fresh water, which he supplemented by drinking limited amounts of seawater for a long period of the trip. The journey was challenging from the start. On 23 October, only the fourth day out, he had to mend a torn sail after his backup sail was blown away. A significant navigation error also led him to believe he was traveling much faster than he actually was. On the fifty-third day, he encountered a British freight liner, the Arakaka, whose crew informed him that he was still over 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) short of his goal. The crew provided him with a meal, but as Bombard later wrote, the "fried egg, a little piece of liver, a spoonful of cabbage and some fruit... gave me the worst stomach trouble of the whole voyage." He declined the offer for safe passage back to Europe and decided to complete the trip. He reached Barbados on 23 December 1952, after traveling 4,400 kilometres (2,700 mi). Bombard had lost 25 kilograms (55 lb) and was briefly hospitalized but was able to walk the two miles to a rescue station. In 1953, he published a book titled Naufragé Volontaire, which was translated into English that same year as The Bombard Story.[3][1]

Bombard's experiment was later investigated by the French and Taiwanese navies, both of which concurred with his findings. The Taiwanese exercise extending to 134 days. Hannes Lindemann, a German physician, canoeist, and sailing pioneer, took several shorter trips without water to better understand living on salt water and fish. However, he found that he needed fresh water (from rain) most...