The material, which was loaded on a schooner sailing vessel, will be sculpted into a piece of art called Nowhere Island.

BBC: Nowhere Island Olympic art team head home

The prospect of sailing a 50-ton wooden vessel identical to those built 2, 600 years ago across the Atlantic might appear foolhardy, had Beale not already challenged maritime history two years ago.

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This is a handy feature considering the vessel is capable of sailing in all kinds of water from the Mediterranean to the Antarctic.

CNN: Inside the $150m Rolls Royce of yachts

It was to be followed by two other French planes based in Dakar, and a naval vessel currently cruising in the Gulf of Guinea, several days' sailing away.

BBC: Atlantic searched for lost plane

On that winter's night more than a year ago, Captain Schettino was trying to show off his vessel and his seamanship by sailing desperately close to the shore, reports the BBC's Rome correspondent Alan Johnston.

BBC: Europe

But one thing, for example, that it's done is - when it is sailing at night, it has rigged up its lights in such a way that it looks like a cargo vessel rather than an aircraft carrier.

BBC: Middle East correspondent Frank Gardner

Together the two men embark on a scheme that involves incapacitating the ship's skipper, changing the vessel's identity at sea, and sailing from San Francisco to Panama City to the west African coast in search of a port where, in return for cash, no questions are asked.

ECONOMIST: New fiction: Wanderings of a drugstore ship | The