Dumfries-born explorer Jock Wishart prepares for rowing trip to North Pole

DG Standard - 

Explorer Jock Wishart has found a crew member to join him on a 450-mile rowing trip to the North Pole.

The adventurer from Dumfries (pictured) is leading the challenge, a world first, to highlight the effect of climate change on polar ice.

It follows his two previous North Pole trips and a row across the Atlantic.

Twenty-eight-year-old British Army officer David Mans, who has commanded soldiers in the Middle East, won a recent competition to join the mission.

Jock, a direct descendant of Rabbie Burns, told the Standard: “I was gobsmacked by the amount of talent out there and we had a difficult job choosing the winner. We had hundreds of people entering the competition from competitive rowers to military men.”

And training is well under way for the Old Pulteney Pole Position Challenge which takes place in July.

In a specially designed boat, Mr Wishart and his five-strong crew will set off from Resolute Bay in Canada and row across the Arctic to the magnetic North Pole.

The four to six-week voyage has never been tackled before and is only possible now due to increased seasonal ice-melt.

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