Phillip Beale is a British sailor, adventurer, expedition leader and entrepreneur. He led the Borobudur Ship Expedition and the 2008-10 Phoenician Expedition. Beale has a BA Honours degree in Politics from the University of Hull. and began his career in the Royal Navy. He is a qualified MCA RYA Yachtmaster, a member of the

Naval and Military Club The Naval and Military Club, known informally as The In & Out, is a private members' club located in St James's Square, London. It was founded in 1862 for gentlemen of the British Armed Forces. It now also accepts female members, and members ...

and The Royal Yachting Association Beale became interested in depictions of a

Borobudur ship A Borobudur ship is the 8th to 9th-century wooden double outrigger sailing Marine vessel, vessel of Maritime Southeast Asia depicted in some bas reliefs of the Borobudur Buddhist monument in Central Java, Indonesia. It is a ship of Javanese peopl ...

that he had seen on the Borobudur Temple terraces in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. He became interested in the fact that the carvings, which had been completed c. AD 825 depicted ships that may have sailed southwest from Indonesia to West Africa. He decided to reconstruct one and sail it to West Africa to prove that Indonesian seafarers could have reached West Africa on water as well as by land. The ship that Beale constructed was called Samudraraksa which means 'guardian of the sea'. It was 19 metres long and 4.25 metres. Beale led the expedition which became known as the Borobudur Ship Expedition in 2003 with 15 crew and sailed Samudraraksa to West Africa, arriving in 2004. Between 2008 and 2010, Beale led the

Phoenician Ship Expedition The Phoenician Ship Expedition is a re-creation of a 6th-century BCE Phoenician voyage conceived by Philip Beale. The replica of an ancient Phoenician ship departed from Syria in August 2008, to sail through the Suez Canal, around the Horn of A ...

to recreate the first route taken by Phoenician mariners in BC 600. The objective of this expedition was to prove that ships built by the ancient Phoenicians could withstand the conditions around the African coastline. On 28 September 2019, Beale launched the Phoenicians Before Columbus Expedition, an attempt to demonstrate that the Phoenicians could have crossed the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

long before

Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus * lij, Cristoffa C(or)ombo * es, link=no, Cristóbal Colón * pt, Cristóvão Colombo * ca, Cristòfor (or ) * la, Christophorus Columbus. (; born between 25 August and 31 October 1451, died 20 May 1506) was a ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beale, Philip Year of birth missing (living people) Living people