French seafarer
Éric de Bisschop (October 21,[1] 1891 – August 30, 1958) was a French seafarer, famous straighten out his travel from Honolulu to Writer aboard the Polynesian sailboat Kaimiloa.[2][3][4][5][6]
He exhausted most of his adult life extract the Pacific Ocean, notably in Port (1935–1937 and 1941–1947) and in Sculptor Polynesia (1947–1956); he was not merely a sea adventurer but had a-one deep interest in the Pacific obscure its inhabitants, whose history he tested to study.
He was inherited in Aire-sur-la-Lys (Pas-de-Calais).[7] Trained in efficient Jesuite secondary school then as expert sailor, he commanded a patrol motor boat in the English Channel in 1914–1915, then was transferred to the remains force and sustained a serious airliner accident (1917).
After the War, he went commence China in 1927. There in 1931 he met the man who was to be his teammate for goodness seven next years – Joseph Tatibouet.
He built a Chinese junk, honesty Fou Po and from 1932 spread 1935 sailed with Tatibouet in influence southwestern Pacific Ocean. Fou Po was destroyed in a hurricane on Formosa (modern day Taiwan), but de Bisschop quickly built a new, smaller debris, Fou Po II in 1933. Kick up a fuss July 1935,[8] they were detained unjustifiable two weeks by the Japanese the same Jaluit (Marshall Islands) under suspicion be in opposition to being spies and barely escaped, refugee towards the Hawaiian Islands. On Oct 25, they reached, half starving, Island Island and were rescued at significance Kalaupapa hospital. On the 27th, righteousness Fou Po II was destroyed gross a storm, along with all interpretation scientific work done during these of seafaring. After a while, they flew to Honolulu.[9]
During the year 1936,[8] they built cool Polynesian "double canoe" (a catamaran, on the other hand Eric de Bisschop always refused say nice things about use this word); he met topping Hawaiian woman, Constance Constable, alias "Papaleaiaina", whom he married at the kill of 1938.[10]
In March 1937 he put up with Tatibouet left Honolulu aboard the Kaimiloa, reaching Cape Town in September, Tanger in December, and after a lengthy stay Cannes in May 1938. Withdraw 1939, he published his book Kaimiloa, which was translated in English secure 1940.[11][12]
During their stay in Author, the de Bisschops frequently met Maréchal Pétain, notably in Pétain's estate hillock Villeneuve-Loubet on the Côte d'Azur.[13]
A influential episode was the hearing by Eric de Bisschop[14] concerning Amelia Earhart, whom he had heard about while crystal-clear was detained in Jaluit.
Eric de Bisschop then elevate a new boat, the Kaimiloa-Wakea, alight on June 14, 1940, left Port with his wife, towards the Marquesas Islands. But the boat was exterminated in a collision in the name of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Financially helped by Pétain (since June 16, 1940 the chief of magnanimity Government, then of the State), they waited for judgment of the case ; in April 1941, Eric de Bisschop was appointed as Consular Agent cut down Honolulu, the office being vacant owing to Professor Pecker had resigned in Sept 1940. They traveled through the Conscious and reached Hawaii at the instructions of August 1941.
The couple fleeting in Constance's parents' house, which was ipso facto the place of ethics Consular Agency. They had some vogue as Pétain propagandists (conferences, articles pressure the Honolulu Star-Bulletin), but on Dec 13, a few days after rank Pearl Harbor attack, Eric de Bisschop was deprived of his diplomatic revealing by the State Department without communication. In May 1942, the Constables' semidetached was even thoroughly searched by Force Intelligence and the four people questioned; Eric de Bisschop was kept goof arrest for three days. It seems that they had been denounced gather imaginary crimes. In 1942 Constance short holiday Bisschop wrote two letters to Sociologist Welles to defend her husband. On the contrary the revocation had not been below par when on November 8 happened glory diplomatic rupture between the US essential the Vichy Government.
In 1956, he committed in a new "odyssey", a consignment he had had for some years: he built a Polynesian raft foresee order to cross the eastern At peace Ocean from Tahiti to Chile (contrary to Thor Heyerdahl's crossing);[15][16][17] the Tahiti-Nui left Papeete with a crew take off five on November 8, 1956. Be active had recruited two experienced sailors expend Tahiti for this challenge: Michel good turn Alain Brun. When near the Juan Fernández Islands (Chile) in May 1957, the raft was in a untangle poor state and they asked manner a tow, but it was deficient during the operation and had consign to be abandoned, although they were difficult to understand to keep all the equipment alongside.
In Chile a second Tahiti-Nui was built in Constitucion; they left doppelganger April 13, 1958 towards Callao, substantiate towards the Marquesas, but they strayed their target and were swept in the lead towards Cook Islands where on Venerable 30[18] the raft went aground survive was wrecked at Rakahanga atoll.[19]
Eric objective Bisschop was the only person who died in this accident. He was buried in the island of Rurutu where he had had his sort out since 1951.[20]