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Alain Bombard – French adventurer has died

Saturday, 23 July 2005

Alain Bombard - French adventurer has died

Alain Bombard, who crossed the Atlantic with no food and water wanted to prove that shipwrecked sailors can survive a long time in terrible conditions, died Tuesday at the age of 80.

Bombard was born in Paris in 1924 and worked as a doctor. The milestone of his existence was the moment when he saw the remnants of a shipwreck in the northern French coast in which more than 20 sailors died.

This event influenced his life so much that he decided to prove the possibility of survival in a blow-up raft with the very limited amount of resources and went to sea in 1952 for 65 days. Bombard drank only small quantities of salt-water and consumed the plankton which it contained. When reaching Barbados he was in such poor condition that he was immediately hospitalized.

He gained popularity after publishing his memoirs of the voyage in ‘The Bombard Story'. Thanks to his achievement and interest in sailors, working conditions and standard safety procedures on board ships have all been greatly improved. He also received many letters from sailors who managed to survive life and death situations using his tips.

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