A forty-year association between Barrus and the Scientific Exploration Society was marked during the recent visit of expedition leader, Colonel John Blashford-Snell OBE, to Barrus’s headquarters in Bicester, Oxfordshire.

Colonel John Blashford-Snell’s visit took in the latest Barrus innovations including a demonstration of the multi-fuel 50hp outboard engine which has been designed and developed for the UK MoD and is capable of running on four different NATO fuels. During his visit the Colonel took the opportunity to present Robert Glen, managing director, E. P. Barrus Ltd, with a plaque to recognise the product and training support provided by Barrus for the many worldwide expeditions organised by the Scientific Exploration Society over the past forty-years.

Barrus’s association with Colonel John Blashford-Snell began when the Scientific Exploration Society was formed in 1968 and the Colonel was asked to select, train and lead a 60-strong team for the first expedition to find the source of the Nile. Mariner outboard engines have been used for many of the expeditions including a 15hp Mariner supplied by Barrus for the Kota Mama expedition in 1998. Colonel John Blashford-Snell recalls, “This little motor had been flown from Britain to South America three times and steered a massive reed-built craft. It pushed and pulled these unwieldy craft and when used on an Avon inflatable safety boat enabled us to rescue eleven men and women after a terrifying capsize. It must have covered at least 10,000kms and survived some of the most testing conditions an outboard can face. It still works well!”

The reliability of Mariner engines, starting first time, also rescued the Colonel and other expedition members from close encounters with a bull whale during Operation Drake and a huge female hippopotamus on Operation Raleigh. Colonel John Blashford-Snell concludes, “We are immensely grateful to everyone at E. P. Barrus Ltd for their advice, encouragement and friendship over the past forty-years. Their support has done much to further exploration all over the world.”