The Fox II on Display at Home of Original Ocean Rower.
In 1896, the Police Gazette sponsored the first people ever to successfully row a boat across an ocean. Last year we were a sponsor of Dr. Stein Hoff as he attempted to duplicate the feat of fellow countrymen George Harbo and Frank Samuelsen. Stein would have been, at 70, the oldest ever to make the row. But a violent storm stopped his progress about three quarters of the way to England. Then for months, his boat the “Fox II”—named after Harbo & Samuelsen’s “Fox” which was named after Police Gazette publisher Richard K. Fox—drifted lost in the North Atlantic. Finally it turned up (see our previous story) and is now on display at a mall in Farsund, Norway, the hometown of Frank Samuelsen. In addition, Ripley’s Believe It or Not has created a display commemorating Stein’s voyage at their Odditorium in Key West, Florida.
The Fox II at the AMFI Farsund Shopping Mall in Norway.
The Police Gazette‘s sticker is battered, but still visible.
Stein’s daughter Elisabeth (left) and wife Diana in Farsund next to the monument to Harbo & Samuelsen.
The Ripley’s Believe It or Not display created for Stein at the Odditorium in Key West, FL.