A Man Who Crossed the Atlantic Ocean Without Food and Water

[Music] imagine this you've decided to set sail across the Atlantic Ocean only you'll be taking a flimsy little inflatable boat and no water or food supplies it's hard to visualize because who in their right mind would do such a thing well one guy did it way back in the 50s and he did it for a very good reason Allen bombard was a French doctor with a huge interest in survival techniques in his medical experience he saw plenty of cases of how tragic outcomes of shipwrecks can be one thing bothered him most of all at that time lifeboats didn't have any fishing equipment plus it was universally believed that people can't survive stranded in the ocean for more than a few days so no one would go and search for them after that bombard couldn't let such crucial misinformation continue he developed a theory that it's possible to survive for much longer only by consuming raw fish plankton for vitamin C and salty sea water if it were handled properly and at a bare minimum that's a pretty key if only because even just one sip of sea water can really hurt your health granted bombard solution wasn't great by any means but it was a solution he borrowed the fish idea from the Polynesians who knew that every single fish contains a certain freshwater like substance that you can drink in case of extreme dehydration bombard even took it a step further and created a fish squeezer yes it's exactly what it sounds like a device that juices a fish like a lemon he was sure that this fresh fish juice can be mixed with sea water and that will save anyone unfortunate enough to be stranded at sea this all probably sounds a bit odd and maybe even loony and you wouldn't be the only one to see it that way lots of people who heard of bombards ideas laughed at him but the thing is he wasn't the first who wanted to prove that people are much more resilient ocean survivors than previously thought in fact when he decided to prove his daring theories he was directly inspired by one famous journey the 1947 kontiki expedition of Thor Heyerdahl who crossed the distance between Peru and Polynesia with his crew on a small primitive raft called kontiki the Norwegian ethnographer was trying to prove that Polynesians may be originally from South America and left the continent by sailing without any food supplies but still they had fresh water with them so what Allan bombard was planning would be even riskier anyway the back story now understood let's get to the actual journey in 1952 the 28 year old decided to cross the Atlantic Ocean without any food or water supplies in a 15 by 6 foot inflatable boat he dumped the vessel The Heretic the guy did have a good sense of humor and decided to make a joke of the fact that he was the butt of the joke around town The Heretic was supposed to carry two people Alan and his friend and navigator Jack Palmer across the ocean with basic fishing equipment a compass and a sail it also had a supply of food and water for an extreme emergency but it was sealed and never opened the whole time their journey started on May 25th 1950 to bombard and Palmer set off from Monaco and headed west toward the Americas it didn't take them long to realize how challenging their goal was in the first two weeks the ocean gave them almost nothing and they were starving they only caught one big fish of course that wasn't nearly enough but this single fish kept them alive Palmer couldn't drink salt water due to health problems but foggy weather allowed them to gather around one gallon of fresh water still it was clear that Alan's friend wouldn't be able to endure the whole trip the bad weather didn't bring only fresh water being alone in the ocean surrounded by fog with no clear vision is scary enough but people familiar with the sea will tell you fog brings its own mysteries with it one day allan and djaq clearly heard a ship coming closer to them and they even saw lights the lights were getting closer and closer the engine roared louder and louder and the two buddies tried to attract the crews attention in case they didn't notice the little boat and would crash into it but suddenly the wind blew the fog away and allan and djaq were shocked by what they saw or perhaps didn't see there were no vessels around them at all the ship had vanished in thin air maybe this was just a hallucination they were exhausted at this point after all they'd both seen and heard it as clear as day so who knows what secrets the ocean holds a few days later they landed in Tangier Morocco where Palmer decided to tap out of the whole experiment for him this trip was just too much but for Allen the experience was only proving that his theory was true and he could reach his goal imagine yourself hungry like you never were in your whole life and you finally see a city where you can get food I imagine the temptation to join his friend must have been unbearable for the survivalist but he continued this time all alone the Atlantic wasn't very fond of his decision though a storm began almost immediately that's when Alan realized he wasn't even close to being prepared for it the waves were huge and he had absolutely no way to get the water out of his boat had it not been inflatable this could have been the bitter end of Alan's epic journey and probably even his life he still had to come up with something as soon as possible and he did he scooped the water out of the boat with his hat but the trouble had only just begun the wind became so strong it tore the sail apart it's often said that a person can overcome their limits in extreme situations and it seemed like Alan did exactly that when the storm was over bombards heretic was still afloat and he soon repaired the sail too as if Alan bombard had somehow passed a cruel examination by the Atlantic the waters around him went calm and fish started showing up in swarms from there on he always had enough opportunities to get food and water but his diet still wasn't healthy by any means dr. bombard found himself getting terrible rashes and any scratch on his body refused to heal chances are he was extremely malnourished Living God raw fish alone was bad enough but one fish was just the worst and it wasn't even a shark it was a swordfish remember he was in an inflatable boat and those things aren't called swordfish for nothing his lunch did end up punching the boat badly once again Alan was forced to scoop water out of the boat relentlessly the main goal of his dangerous trip was to prove that people stranded at sea after shipwreck could survive but he didn't stop himself from trying to attract the attention of nearby ships his experience proved that it was too hard though he came across several ships but was noticed only once by the crew of a British vessel called Eric akka this encounter was the second time bomb was tempted to quit his treacherous experiment for good imagine him seeing people a good meal and a soft warm bed to lie down it but I'm sure you know by now that the doc just kept floating on he did take a couple of eggs an apple and some vegetables does that count as cheating I'll let you decide even after being told that he was about 620 miles away from his destination he didn't bat an eye the rest of his trip was hard but not as terrible as it had been before even as the Sun scorched his skin he lost 52 pounds and weathered a typhoon none of that could compared to the starvation and storms he'd already gone through on December 23rd 1952 he arrived in Barbados West Indies and his emergency food supplies were still sealed dr. Allan bombard needed serious medical attention and received hospital treatment after a two thousand seven hundred mile trip on a little boat with no food and nothing but raw fish for breakfast lunch and dinner that comes as no surprise at all with his act of pure bravery and some would say stubborn foolishness but hey it was for a good cause he proved his point it was soon acknowledged that shipwreck survivors should be searched continuously for a much longer period than just ten days it's hard to comprehend just how many lives have been saved thanks to dr. Allan bombard since 1952 when he decided to cross the Atlantic Ocean in an inflatable boat and test just how strong the human will to survive truly is and what people would you consider heroes that deserve more recognition let me know down in the comments if you learned something new today then give this video a like and share it with a friend but partner don't go anywhere just yet we have over 2,000 cool videos for you to check out all you need to do is pick the left or right video click on it and enjoy your welcome here on the bright side of life

Channel: BRIGHT SIDE

Views: 516,916

Rating: 4.8722029 out of 5

Keywords: survival story, survivor, true story, critical situation, dangerous situation, surviving the crash, shipwreck, ship crash, survival at sea, lost at sea, how to survive at sea, sea survival stories, at sea alone, Alain Bombard, can you drink salt water, Alain bombard story, story of Bombard and Lindemann, Dr. Alain Bombard

Id: dqY_n3izbVU

Length: 10min 31sec (631 seconds)

Published: Mon May 27 2019