Arne Frode Rinnan is the former captain of the MV Tampa, which in 2001 was refused access to Australia to disembark 433 rescued refugees - in what became known as the Tampa affair. Rinnan and his crew were awarded the Nansen Refugee Award in 2002.
Louis Bruce (17 December 1875 – 31 March 1958) was a British wrestler and one of the first Black London tram drivers. He competed in the men's freestyle heavyweight at the 1908 Summer Olympics, the first Black British Olympian.
Leif Vetlesen (7 August 1921 – 18 May 2003) was a Norwegian sailor, political worker, organizational worker and writer.
He was born in Kristiania as a son of engineer Alf Vetlesen (1878–1963) and teacher Aagot Bugge (1881–1967). He was a great-grandson of Frederik Moltke Bugge. He finished his secondary education at Oslo Cathedral School in 1939, and then went to sea. He was going to return to land after one year, but when Norway was involved in World War II in April 1940, their merchant fleet became a crucial asset in the war and Vetlesen stayed. He worked at sea for several years, but while hospitalized with jaundice in Cardiff, he became involved with the British Communist Party. As he became known as a good speaker, he was hired in the trade union Norwegian Seafarers' Union in 1944.After the war he launched a campaign for better treatment of war sailors, but his agitation led to him being fired from the union in 1947. In 1949 he was also excluded from the Young Communist League of Norway. His marriage since 1943 to Lorna Dilys Peaty also ended in 1949; in 1951 he married Vesla Gunvor Hansen. After the Soviet invasion of Hungary he renounced Communism and joined the Norwegian Labour Party together with his wife.Vetlesen held various jobs, both as a manual worker and electoral campaigner for the Labour Party, before being hired as information director in the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation. He remained here until 1982 except for three years from 1968 to 1971 in Uganda. From 1982 to 1985 he was secretary-general of Amnesty International Norway. His wife was a government minister from 1986 to 1988.Vetlesen's former work for war sailors was taken up by Thore Horve during the 1960s, and led to an ex gratia monetary payment to sailors in 1972. Vetlesen released several books about the topic, including Sjøfolkenes kamp for det hemmelige fond (1949), Reis ingen monumenter. Kampen om Nortraships hemmelige fond (1981), Med døden i kjølvannet. Av en krigsseilers saga (1989) and Syv fortellinger fra Norges krig på havet (with others, 1993). He also wrote two books about the Communist Party and Peder Furubotn. He was decorated with the HM The King's Medal of Merit in gold in 1997, and died in May 2003 in Oslo.
Alexander Gillon (August 13, 1741 – October 6, 1794) was an American merchant and seaman from Charleston, South Carolina. He represented South Carolina in the U.S. House in 1793 and 1794.
Herculine Adélaïde Barbin, later known as Abel Barbin (November 8, 1838 – February 1868), was a French intersex person who was assigned female at birth and raised in a convent, but was later reclassified as male by a court of law, after an affair and physical examination. She is known for her memoir, Herculine Barbin, which was studied by Michel Foucault. Her birthday is marked as Intersex Day of Remembrance.
Sir Charles Blyth (born 14 May 1940), known as Chay Blyth, is a Scottish yachtsman and rower. He was the first person to sail single-handed non-stop westwards around the world (1971), on a 59-foot boat called British Steel.
James Knapp (29 September 1940 – 13 August 2001) was a British trades unionist. He was successively General Secretary of the National Union of Railwaymen (NUR) from 1983, and then of the merged National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) from 1990 to his death in 2001. He served on the executive board of the International Transport Workers' Federation from 1983 to 2001, the General Council of the Trades Union Congress from 1983 to 2001, and was President of the Trades Union Congress in 1994.
