Philip Beale

Beale has a BA Honours degree in Politics from the University of Hull[2] and began his career in the Royal Navy.

[2] He is a qualified MCA RYA Yachtmaster, a member of the Naval and Military Club and The Royal Yachting Association.

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.

[4] The ship that Beale constructed was called Samudra Raksa, which means "guardian of the sea".

The objective of this expedition was to prove that ships built by the ancient Phoenicians could withstand the conditions around the African coastline.