Hold Fast! 8. Our duty is done

Lives Less Ordinary

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.6 • 814 Ratings

🗓️ 25 August 2025

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As the Avontuur draws closer to Hamburg and its final port of call, the crew begin to reflect on what they’ve been through and what awaits them in their lives back on land. But first, there’s a party to welcome the ship home.

Lives Less Ordinary is a podcast from the BBC World Service that brings you the most incredible true stories from around the world. Each episode a guest shares their most dramatic, moving, personal story. Listen for unbelievable twists, mysteries uncovered, and inspiring journeys - spanning the entire human experience. Step into someone else’s life and expect the unexpected. Got a story to tell? Send an email to [email protected] or message us via WhatsApp: 0044 330 678 2784 You can read our privacy notice here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5YD3hBqmw26B8WMHt6GkQxG/lives-less-ordinary-privacy-notice

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Rory Stewart and I grew up wanting to be a hero and I'm still fascinated by the ideas of heroism.
0:08.9	In my new series, I'm taking in the long sweep of history from Achilles to Zelensky and asking, what is a hero?
0:16.2	Simply doing your job, being a decent human being.
0:20.0	A true hero is someone who just kind of shines by
0:23.1	their own light and that light is to be recognized by others. The long history of heroism with me,
0:28.6	Rory Stewart. Listen on BBC Sounds. Coming up on Hold Fast. So I went down, I knocked at the captain's door, he opens, and quite shyly, I ask him,
0:43.3	please, can I have my passport back?
0:47.1	It makes me sign my see-time declaration, and then we shake hands one last time, and then it's the goodbyes.
0:56.9	This is the extraordinary story of sailing cargo ship, the Avantour,
1:02.2	and its crew of 15 on a wind-powered mission
1:05.2	to transport olive oil, cacao, coffee and rum
1:09.0	between Europe and Central America.
1:12.2	But before they even make it halfway, everything their counting on is thrown to the winds.
1:19.6	I'm Chauvin McSweeney and you're listening to Lives Less Ordinary Presents.
1:26.2	Hold Fast from the BBC
1:29.2	World Service
1:30.1	Episode 8
1:33.6	Our duty is done
1:35.9	Our Duty is done.
1:39.9	Music It's the 23rd of July 2020, as the Aventure now makes its way through the North Sea.
2:07.9	Scotland is behind them as they pass close to the coast of Sweden and head onwards towards Germany,
2:14.4	the mouth of the river Elbe and Hamburg, their final destination.
	...

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