With his eyes fixed on a ?000 prize offered by a group of Americans for the first canoe crossing of the Atlantic a London man ( Mr Leslie William Fairnie ) proposes to attempt the trip next week - he will use a 12ft rubber canoe equipped with a mast and sail and of the type which can be folded up and carried on a man's back and he will try to win the prize by crossing the Channel hugging the coast as far as Lisbon and then striking out boldly for the Azores and South America - his canoe draws only a few inches of water and for the dual purpose of ballast and nourishment he will take a stock of highly-concentrated foods to be stacked in the front of his frail craft - photo shows Mr Leslie William Fairnie ( who proposes to make a canoe crossing of the Atlantic ) trying out his canoe on the Thames (Sunday) February 10th 1935