RUSSIAN gunboats, a spell in captivity and force nine gales tested the resolve of 71-yearold sailor Jeffrey Allison, but despite the ordeal the intrepid adventurer has vowed to return to the high seas.

After docking in Hartlepool yesterday, following an eventful 6,500-mile trip, Mr Allison and his two crewmates recounted their attempts to complete the dangerous North-East passage, which links the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

The journey started out as straightforward, but conditions turned against the sailors and the trip had to be abandoned only ten miles from their scheduled end.

Matters worsened on the way home when they were boarded by Russian coastguards, who threatened to open fire unless they docked in Murmansk, where they were detained for not having permission to sail the Barents Sea.

Mr Allison, of Middleton Tyas, NorthYorkshire, denied any wrongdoing, and said he will fight the five-year ban imposed by a Russian court as punishment for him and his crewmates, Barrie Beeken, of Melsonby, North Yorkshire, and Craig Longstaff, of Heighington, County Durham.

Mr Allison said he was pleased to be back on British soil, but said he wanted to overturn the ban because he wanted to try the North-East passage again next year.

“It is strictly regulated, but we are not complaining about that. We are complaining about being threatened on the high seas, in a shipping lane that is on both Russian and international charts,” he said.

“Russia isn’t the force it was. These people ought really to behave in a friendly manner towards Europe, the US and China.”

Describing the moment the Russian authorities boarded his boat, Mr Allison said: “We didn’t want to go back, but they came aboard and made a threat, a mild threat, along the lines of ‘see that cannon on the boat?’”

But he said he was more concerned about the deteriorating sailing conditions than the threat of Russian justice during his week-long stay in Murmansk.

“I said ‘just tell the judge she’d be better off putting me in the Gulag than making me go round North Cape in October,”

he said. “I was worried it would be harder than it turned out to be.”

Asked about his next expedition, Mr Allison said: “We’ll see what next year brings.”