Jean-Jacques Savin (; 14 January 1947 – disappeared 21 January 2022) was a French
adventurer. He also worked as a paratrooper, a private pilot, and as a curator of a state park in the
Central African Republic. In 2018–2019, he crossed the
Atlantic Ocean by floating alone in a barrel-shaped capsule for over four months. He disappeared during an attempt to row alone across the Atlantic in January 2022.
2018–2019 Atlantic voyage
In late December 2018, Savin boarded a barrel-shaped capsule and began his voyage from
El Hierro in the
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Morocc ...
. The solar-powered capsule was designed to withstand
orca attacks and waves, and included a kitchen and sleeping bunk. He arrived in the
Caribbean
The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...
more than four months later, on 27 April 2019, whereupon he declared his voyage a success. After a Dutch oil tanker picked him and his barrel up and ferried them to
Sint Eustatius
Sint Eustatius (, ), also known locally as Statia (), is an island in the Caribbean. It is a special municipality (officially " public body") of the Netherlands.
The island lies in the northern Leeward Islands portion of the West Indies, so ...
, where Savin stayed a few days, a French tugboat took him to
Martinique.
2022 Atlantic voyage
On 1 January 2022, Savin set off from
Sagres, Portugal, in a rowing boat long and wide, with of equipment, including a spear gun, a heater, two
desalinator
Desalination is a process that takes away mineral components from saline water. More generally, desalination refers to the removal of salts and minerals from a target substance, as in soil desalination, which is an issue for agriculture. Saltw ...
s, freeze-dried food, and his mandolin. He was to arrive to the
French Caribbean island of
Martinique three months later. In the early hours of 21 January, Savin sent two distress beacons to indicate he was encountering great difficulty, with official last contact at 00:34. His boat was found overturned later that day by the
Portuguese coast guard, and the next day, a diver commissioned to investigate reportedly discovered Savin's body in the cabin. However, it was later reported Savin had not been discovered in his cabin, and that he had been lost at sea.
See also
*
List of people who disappeared mysteriously at sea
References
1947 births
2020s missing person cases
Missing person cases in Portugal
People lost at sea
Living people
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