Howard Blackburn's Second Trans-Atlantic Voyage
Howard Blackburn is a Gloucester, Massachusetts legend. He left life as a successful tavern-keeper to row across the Atlantic in a single-person dory called the Great Republic. On July 18, 1901, the 25-foot sloop made port in Lisbon, Portugal, after just 39 days at sea. It was Blackburn’s second solo trans-Atlantic voyage, and his time set a record that would hold for many years.
What makes Blackburn’s voyage all-the-more remarkable is that he had lost nearly all of his fingers and toes to frostbite in 1883. While fishing for halibut, he and his crewmate were separated from their ship. While rowing and bailing, his crewmate lost hope and succumbed to the winter storm, but Blackburn, noting the inevitable, froze his hands to the oars and rowed for five days. He was nursed back to health but the results of the journey have been documented in gruesome detail. Nevertheless, shore life left Blackburn with a yearning for adventure, and strenuous solo voyages were his answer. His name lives on in Gloucester, where his tavern building still stands, and in the ballad The Saga of Howard Blackburn.
