Tori Murden

1963-

American transatlantic rower

Tori Murden's list of firsts is remarkably disparate, involving unprecedented accomplishments in transatlantic rowing, mountain climbing and cross country skiing. In 1988, she became the first woman and first American to reach the top of Antarctica's Lewis Nunatuk Summit. The following year, she became the first woman and first American to ski to the geographic South Pole. A decade later, in an astonishing three-month quest, she became the first woman and first American to row across the Atlantic Ocean singlehandedly. "It is my own particular flaw," Murden once said, "that I am best able to find what it means to be a human being when I'm off alone in some hostile place."

Early challenges

Murden's family moved thirteen times when she was a child. The youngest of three children, she was regularly drawn into fistfights in defense of her mentally handicapped brother, Lamar. "The things that happened to me were nothing compared to the things that happened to Lamar," Murden told Women's Sports & Fitness magazine. "I learned how invisible a person can be if they're in the margins of society." After graduating from high school in Louisville, she earned a bachelor's degree from Smith College and a Master of Divinity degree from Harvard. Along the way, she worked in Boston as a chaplain at a city hospital and the director of a residential center for homeless women. In the 1990s, Murden earned a law degree and held community service jobs in Louisville.

At the same time, she developed an adventurer's heart. Murden climbed mountains on five continents—including her groundbreaking trek to the top of Antartica's Lewis Nunatuk. There also were ice-climbing expeditions on Alaska's Brooks and Muldrow Glacier, and sea kayaking excursions on Prince William Sound and the Indian Ocean. While enrolled in The National Outdoor Leadership School, Murden lived with a Masai tribe in Kenya. At Harvard, she wrote her master's thesis on the "theology of adventure."

Relentless competitor

In 1989, Murden took off three months from her divinity studies at Harvard to join the International South Pole Overland Expedition. She was its youngest member. As part of a nine-member team, she skied cross-country 750 miles in fifty days to the geographic South Pole—the first woman and first American to do so. A couple years later, Murden trained intensely to earn a spot on the 1992 U.S. Olympic rowing team, but was forced to drop out of the final qualifying heat after breaking two ribs in a car crash. That would not, however, be the end of Tori Murden's competitive rowing career.

In October 1997, Murden and Louise Graff, an old high school friend and an experienced kayaker, set out as the only American entry and only all-female team in the Port St. Charles Atlantic Rowing Race. The 3,000 mile east-to-west trek from the Canary Islands to Barbados is considered the "downhill route" across the Atlantic, with fair weather and favorable winds. Within hours of launch, Murden and at least two other competitors were afflicted with severe food poisoning. She spent several days semi-conscious in the hospital, then insisted on rejoining the race. She and Graff made good progress for two days before their electrical system failed, forcing them to abort the effort.

A second attempt

Sector Sport Watches, an Italian company, was sponsoring French rower Peggy Bouchet's solo attempt to cross the Atlantic in early 1998 when they contacted Murden. Bouchet was traveling westward from the Canaries; Sector wanted to back Murden in an attempt to cross the North Atlantic from west to east—a much longer, more dangerous route. "Eager to crack the U.S. market, Sector turned to Murden," reported Women's Sports & Fitness. "With her Ivy League pedigree and Wheaties-box grin, she was a corporate sponsor's dream—a gifted public speaker who relished giving inspirational talks to schoolkids and volunteered in a rowing program for disabled youth." Murden initially rejected the idea as too dangerous, but she relented a few days later.

She set out upon the 3,600-mile, 100-day journey from Nags Head, North Carolina, on June 14, 1998. Her boat, American Pearl, was 23-feet long and built from plywood reinforced with fiberglass and covered in Kevlar. The craft capsized a week later, damaging Murden's communications system. The boat automatically righted and bailed itself, as it was built to do, but Murden spent the next 78 days unable to communicate with the outside world or obtain a weather report. On Day 85, still 950 miles from her destination in France, Murden collided with Hurricane Danielle and its 50-foot waves. Murden sealed herself inside her coffin-sized cabin; the boat capsized fifteen times. Murden did not activate her distress beacon until the three-day storm passed, because she did not want people risking their lives in a rescue attempt. She was suffering from a dislocated shoulder and a concussion when she finally was picked up by the bulk carrier Independent Spirit. Months later, the American Pearl washed up off the shore of Portugal.

An unprecedented achievement

Bouchet also had failed in her attempted crossing, so the elusive record was still to be claimed. On September 13, 1999, a year after she eluded death in the North Atlantic, Murden set out again. This time, however, she would travel the safer east-to-west route from the Canary Islands to the West Indies. For two months, her odyssey went smoothly. By mid-November, she was 430 miles from Guadeloupe, on pace to beat the record time for a solo crossing—just over seventy-three days—set by Sidney Genders of Great Britain in 1970. Then came tropical storm Lenny. "It passed directly over her, capsizing the boat once and sending it on a violent, nauseating roller-coaster ride that lasted for hours," said Women's Sports & Fitness. "The thunder was constant and cacophonous, and Murden spent the night with her fingers in her ears, singing hymns at the top of her lungs to distract herself. By dawn, the worst was over, and within a couple of days, favorable winds returned."

On December 3, after rowing 3,333 miles in eighty-two days, Murden arrived at Bas-du-Fort, Guadeloupe. "There are times (alone at sea) that are incredibly sublime, and you feel like you're at once that puny speck of nothing and part of a grand universe," she told CNN upon her arrival. "There are other times when it's frightening and just lonely. And so along the roller coaster there are grand moments and sad moments, but I would-n't trade them for anything."

Chronology

Awards and Accomplishments

Following her historic journey, Murden returned to Louisville and married Charles "Mac" McClure, a retired forester to whom she proposed during a satellite phone call from the middle of the Atlantic. She went on to become active in civic affairs, first as development director for the Muhammad Ali Center, an arts and education complex, and later as a Spalding University trustee and a member of the task force facilitating the merger of the Louisville and Jefferson County governments.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Email: [email protected].

FURTHER INFORMATION

Periodicals

Barnette, Martha. "The Unsinkable Tori Murden." Women's Sports & Fitness (June 2000).

Mims, Bob. "Women Urged to 'Chase Your Dreams'; Adventurer Tells YWCA Forum of Harrowing Atlantic Crossing." Salt Lake City Tribune (September 30, 2000).

Moss, Deborah. "Victory at Sea: Last Week Tori Murden Became the First Woman to Row Across the Atlantic." Sports Illustrated (December 13, 1999).

Smolove, Jill. "Fantastic Journey: Braving High Seas and Solitude, Tori Murden Rows Across the Atlantic." People (December 20, 1999).

Stahl, Linda. "A Year Later, Rower has Eased off to Enjoy Life; Murden-McClure Free to do 'What I Feel Like Doing.'" Louisville Courier-Journal (January 1, 2001).

Stahl, Linda. "Rower Gives Youths Hands-On Lesson; Murden-McClure Spends Time With Visually Impaired," Louisville Courier-Journal (June 14, 2001).

Sketch by David Wilkins