Titanic owner descendant to take on 3,000-mile solo row across Atlantic for charity

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A descendant of the owner of the Titanic is to take on a gruelling 3000-mile solo row across the Atlantic to raise money for conservation and environment charities.Henry Cheape is set to take on the challenge in a bid to raise £250,000 to highlight sustainability issues.The businessman, 43, will make the voyage from the Canary Islands to Antigua alongside 40 other boats in December.His great-great-grandfather was Joseph Bruce Ismay, the head of shipping company White Star Line, which owned the Titanic.

Ismay was on board when the ship sank on its maiden voyage across the Atlantic in April 1912 and survived.Henry’s journey – known as the “world’s toughest row” – can take up to 10 weeks to complete and is a feat of mental, physical and psychological endurance as participants battle against sleep deprivation, hunger and exhaustion.But the dad of three, who will be aboard the PollyAnne rowing boat, said the thought of family will keep him going.Henry, who runs farm shop Balgove Larder in St Andrews, said: “To get away from the humdrum of daily life for a brief moment in time and have the opportunity to experience that is a privilege.

To justify that privilege is where the charity element comes in as a way to say thank you.“Sleep deprivation is real and it will be horrendous but there will be no one else there to help me or row the boat for me, so it’s about digging really down into myself and just getting on with it.“The record is 35 days and last year it took someone 130 days but my objective is to beat a multi-crew team.“Weather will slow me down, technical failure will slow me down, but I’ll do it as quickly as I can.