Disabled rower is saved after running out of food

He had hoped to follow the great explorers into the pages of nautical history by becoming the first disabled rower to cross the Pacific. But nine months after setting out on his epic voyage, Andrew Halsey has been forced to admit defeat.

Mr Halsey, who suffers from epilepsy and a disabled knee and swore he would "do or die" at the start of his trip, was picked up by a Korean fishing boat after sending an emergency signal, the Ocean Rowing Society said yesterday.

The commander of a Coast Guard plane also involved in the rescue was reported as saying Mr Halsey was "said he hadn't eaten anything in two weeks and the last thing he ate was a flying fish that jumped on his vessel".

It was an unglamorous end for the determined 42-year-old former butcher from Camden, north London, who set off from San Diego, California, on 15 July bound for Australia. After rowing a gruelling 6,000 miles, he discovered 4,000 of those were in the wrong direction. Winds and strong currents had blown him off course.

Mr Halsey's weight had plummeted from 12 stone to eight and he was forced to abandon his attempt after running out of food and battery power for his tracking beacon.

When he was rescued 1,200 miles south-east of Hawaii, the exhausted rower was still more than 4,700 miles from his destination. He had aimed to row the 7,000 miles to Australia in seven months.

Colleagues at the Ocean Rowing Society were planning an emergency rendezvouswhen he suddenly sent out an SOS after about 250 days at sea.

In an emotional call to his mother Barbara, Mr Halsey said that he had decided to raise the alarm as his battery-powered radio began to fail. A Korean trawler raced to his aid and he was winched on board - together with his tiny craft. He is due to be landed at Honolulu in Hawaii in five days.

Last night a relieved Mrs Halsey, 64, from Clacton, Essex, said her son sounded exhausted but in good spirits. "I am just so glad that he is safe. I haven't slept for weeks because I have been so worried about him. He is very strong-willed and I know that he will be really disappointed that he has been forced to give up his attempt."

She said her son was already talking about continuing after his boat is repaired, although her husband Dennis, 72, plans to persuade him to stay on land in Britain.

Mr Halsey had said he hoped the journey would reunite him with his 15-year-old daughter, after whom his 28ft by 4ft glass fibre rowing boat, The Brittany Rose, is named. The father of one has not seen her for seven years but hopes that she will see press coverage and contact him.

Some of the worst weather on record has repeatedly driven him off course. He also suffered four epileptic seizures, capsized and three times set off his emergency beacon, causing merchant ships to divert up to 24 hours off course to come to his aid.

But the rower, who crossed the Atlantic alone in 117 days in 1997, refused each time to be rescued, after thanking the vessels for coming to his aid. He told a Norwegian fishing vessel that responded to his emergency signal in October that he had set off his EPIRB beacon by accident, and continued after accepting cigarettes and batteries.

Kenneth Crutchlow, director of the Ocean Rowing Society, has now flown to Honolulu to meet Mr Halsey. In February, Mr Crutchlow appealed forfunds for a trip to take supplies to the rower or offer him a chance to call it a day. At the time, Mr Crutchlow said: "He is on record as saying he was determined to keep trying no matter what. It is what they all say, but I think we are looking at something a bit different with Andrew. I think he would rather keep going than admit to failure. It is driving him on."

On his record-setting trans-atlantic journey, Mr Halsey spent the last ten days of the four-month trip sucking moisture from fish he caught after his water ran out.