There have been 29 attempts to row the Atlantic from west to east. Only ten have been successful and not one has reached mainland Britain. Six men have died in the attempt.

One of the fastest crossings was the first. In June 1896 two Norwegians, George Harbo and Gabriel Samuelson, set off in an 18ft whaler from Battery Park, New York and reached the Isles of Scilly 55 days and 13 hours later.

A month out of New York, their boat was capsised by huge breaking seas, throwing both men into the water. They hung on to hand grips built into the keel and managed to right the boat and get back on board. They had lost a lot of their equipment and provisions, but managed to stop a passing ship which resupplied them.

The next successful crossing of the Atlantic was by Chay Blyth and John Ridgway, two British paratroopers who rowed English Rose III, a 20 ft Yorkshire Dory from Cape Cod to the Aran Isles off Ireland in 92 days. They found themselves in competition with another boat, Puffin, which never completed the journey. Her crew of two, David Johnstone and John Hoare, became the first fatalities on the route.

Harbo and Samuelson's record stood alone for 90 years. It remains unbeaten but was equalled in 1969 by solo British rower Tom McClean who took 55 days to row from St John's, Newfoundland, to Bishop's Rock Lighthouse.

The current absolute Atlantic rowing record is held on the east-west route by an 11-man French crew, who in 1992 rowed La Mondiale from the Canary Islands to Martinique in the West Indies in 35 days and 8 hours.