Florentino Das

Das was born in the northernmost town of Allen, Northern Samar to Domingo Das and Juliana Resulta. Having been exposed at an early age in traditional fishing, and learning this in the most treacherous waters of the San Bernardino Strait, Das has picked the skills of boat handling. Allen is also the terminus of the ferry between Luzon and Samar, and this has impressed upon Das to pursue a life of seafaring. His father also owned a traditional 60-foot double-outrigger sailing boat called a paraw, which is powered by a crab-claw sail along with a small foresail. With the paraw, the Das patriarch and his sons conducted trading around Eastern and Central Visayas. Part of his learning was also in the traditional knowledge of boat building, wayfinding, celestial navigation, and weather forecasting. Das shared "Me, I have loved them (boats) since I was a kid. Whenever my father was building a new boat, I was sure to be there beside him, when I was still very little." At the age of 12, Das got into trouble with his local school authorities, and thus he fled to the neighboring town of Lavezares, where he found work as a cabin boy in the inter-island ferry. Das found his way to the capital Manila later on, and survived by taking various jobs, such as a stevedore or boat crewman. In February 1934 he boarded the English freighter Silverbeam as a stowaway, but was discovered after a few days en route to San Francisco. The captain put him and his fellow stowaway to work, and by the time they arrived in Hawaii he was given a choice whether to offload or continue to San Francisco with a guaranteed work on board the ship. Das opted to disembark, and arrived in Honolulu at the age of 16. In Hawaii, Das took on work as a ship scalar, chipper and painter for interisland vessels, a security guard, and as a vocation he also pursued an amateur boxing career. He met his wife, Gloria Lorita Espartino, a Filipino-American who grew up in Hawaii, and gave Das eight children. During World War II Das was employed as a fishing boat captain and learned modern navigation. ==Solo sailing==

Das was inspired by the French sailor Éric de Bisschop, who arrived in Hawaii from France on his sailboat Kaimiloa. Das was mentored by de Bisschop on modern sailing techniques, and in turn the former helped work on the repairs of de Bisschop's boat. On February 22, 1956, Das was able to secure clearance from the local authorities and sailed off towards the Philippines. The Mayor of Manila Arsenio Lacson received a letter from his counterpart from Honolulu as hand carried by Das, and gave the latter Keys to the City. ==Later life and death==

Shortly after arriving in the Philippines, Das found himself lacking in funding or a means of getting back to Hawaii. He tried to sell Lady Timarau to the Philippine government, but did not receive any positive feedback on this. He also found that his wife had divorced him during his absence. To make ends meet, he again took on odd jobs. He also met Herminia Cipriano, a school teacher whom he married on August 16, 1957. They were able to get hired as caretakers of a resort on Corregidor Island. Das was also hired by the Philippine Tourist and Travel Authority. Das and his wife moved to Mindoro where his wife took on teaching job with the Divine Word College of San Jose. He attempted once more to sell the Lady Timarau to the Philippine government for it to be preserved in a museum, but the boat sank in the Pasig River in one of the storms. On the seventh anniversary of his feat, he celebrated by sailing solo once more, on a 27-footer utility boat from San Jose, Occidental Mindoro to Manila, but by this time he was already suffering from diabetes and was losing his vision because of glaucoma. Das was admitted to the Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Hospital for glaucoma surgery, but by 1964 his health was deteriorating and he lost his sight. Das died on October 7, 1964, at the age of 46 due to uremia at a hospital in Manila. During his funeral, he was accorded Navy Honor Guards, and was buried at the Manila North Cemetery. ==Memorials==

There are a number of memorials to commemorate his achievement: • A memorial plaque in Kewalo Basin, Honolulu. • A memorial plaque in Santa Monica, Surigao del Norte • A historical marker and statue in Allen, Samar. • One of the vessels of the Kaya ng Pinoy Foundation is named B/B Florentino Das == References ==