First Atlantic Rowing Crossing

The first people to row across the Atlantic Ocean were two Norwegian immigrants to the United States, George Harbo and Frank Samuelsen, who rowed from New York to the Isles of Scilly in 1896. It was the first ocean ever crossed under oars.

The First Atlantic Rowing Crossing

On 6 June 1896 Harbo and Samuelsen left New York in the Fox, an 18-foot (5.48 m) open rowing boat without sails, heading east. Guinness World Records, which lists theirs as the first row across the Atlantic, records their arrival in the Isles of Scilly on 1 August 1896, after 55 days at the oars and about 3,270 miles (5,262 km). After a short stop the pair rowed on up the English Channel to Le Havre in France, their final destination.

At the time no one knew if the feat was even possible, and Guinness World Records notes that it preceded the next documented ocean row by more than 70 years.

Why 1966 Matters

In the mid-20th century a new landmark crossing gained fame, but it was not the first. In the summer of 1966 two British Army paratroopers rowed the North Atlantic from west to east in the open dory English Rose III. They left Orleans, near Cape Cod, on 4 June 1966, and after 92 days at sea were sighted off the North Aran lighthouse on the west coast of Ireland on 3 September, where the Galway Bay lifeboat met them in rough weather and towed them into Kilronan on the Aran Islands. Theirs is the crossing many people remember, and it is sometimes wrongly called the first Atlantic row.

The First Solo Crossings and How Records Are Kept

The solo firsts came three years later and are split by direction. John Fairfax, a Briton, left Gran Canaria in January 1969 in his boat Britannia and landed at Hollywood Beach, Florida, on 19 July 1969 after about 180 days, the first person to row alone across any ocean, and the first solo crossing from east to west. A few days later, on 27 July 1969, another British soldier completed the first solo row from west to east, from St John's in Newfoundland to Blacksod Bay in County Mayo, in about 70 days.

Today these claims are kept straight by the Ocean Rowing Society, founded in 1983, which according to Guinness World Records classifies, verifies and adjudicates ocean-rowing achievements and keeps a record of all attempts to row the oceans. Records are classified by ocean, direction and crew, which is why "first across the Atlantic" needs care: the first crossing of all belongs to Harbo and Samuelsen in 1896, while the first solo crossings in each direction both date from 1969. For current records in any category, check the Ocean Rowing Society or Guinness World Records directly.