The Rowing Marine : Crossing the Atlantic: The World’s Only Physically Disabled Person to Hold the World Record in an Endurance Event

On 9 January 2019, Lee Spencer, a disabled former Royal Marine, set out in a tiny rowing boat called Hope from the Southern Portuguese town of Portimao. He was aiming to become the fourth person in history to row solo and unsupported across the Atlantic Ocean, as well as the first disabled person to complete the row and the fastest. After sixty days, sixteen hours and six minutes at sea, Lee rowed into the Mahury River estuary in Cayenne, South America, shattering the able-bodied record by an astonishing thirty-six days and becoming the world's only physically disabled person to break and hold an able-bodied record in an endurance event.

Lee's remarkable journey began with dreams of one day being strong enough to face his father, and of becoming a Royal Marine—a goal he achieved in 1992. Having served in the second Iraq War, he then volunteered for Special Duties and was one of only three out of 126 who passed the gruelling course. He went on to complete three tours of Afghanistan as an agent handler. Then, on a dark winter's night, Lee stopped to help at the scene of a motorway crash. Struck by debris when another car hit the scene, he came within a whisker of bleeding to death, instructing a passer-by to stand on his groin when a makeshift tourniquet wouldn't work. Surgeons could not save his leg.

Unperturbed by becoming disabled, Lee learned to walk again and went on to row across the Atlantic with the world's first physically disabled crew of four—with just three legs between them—to row any ocean, before embarking on his epic solo journey. In The Rowing Marine, Lee takes us on his extraordinary solo voyage as he relates his unparalleled life story, bringing together the threads of his many experiences into one unforgettable narrative.