Ben Carlin book: THE LAST GREAT AUSTRALIAN ADVENTURER

[Lang]

Mike

The more you write about it, the less I think I am going to enjoy the book.

"pointed out it was not a true crossing". What crap is that. Thousands of kilometres of open ocean! "sneaked up around the Aleutians" - do you think the Aleutians, plus the thousands of kilometres from Japan to get to them in the first place, is like a sail through the Greek Islands or a trip down the Caribbean chain? The bloke who wrote this and people who think it is a reasonable comment should have a look at the map, the weather conditions that prevail all year round in the Aleutians and have a think, when they double their nautical experience in a rented row boat in the city lake, about being out there.

There were very few "true ocean crossings" of the Pacific until non stop Inertial Nav/GPS great circle route flights and voyages between USA and Australia or Asia and South America began. Certainly direct from Japan to Hawaii then San Francisco is not a true crossing with more than half the untouched Pacific south of the equator.

If he had left from Australia and called into Fiji and Hawaii they would still say he "sneaked through the Pacific Islands"

I have seen on this forum several times people saying they are not driving their fully restored CMP or even Jeep from Ballarat/Goulbourn etc to Corowa, a 4 hour drive, because it is too far. People prepare for years for an MVPA convoy with modern support facilities and fully restored vehicles. Yet we have a few dismissive lines describing Ben Carlin's journey on 1950's roads in a worn out vehicle with no support, 10,000km from Alaska to New York via Los Angeles.

Francis Drake, James Cook,Lewis and Clark and Neil Armstrong all did it on the government payroll. Livingstone did it from the money the poor subscribed to the collection box while all the others did it from sponsorships or rich supporters. Somehow Ben Carlin is some sort of con-man with snide remarks about how he could not have done it without people giving him financial or use of facilities assistance - none, by the way, while he was risking his life - I can only fall back on Benjamin Franklin:

"A man brands himself a coward who disparages ( sometimes written, belittles) the efforts of those who choose to test their mettle on ventures he himself has neither the courage nor skill to contemplate"

[Mike K]

"As for snide remarks about how he could not have done it without people giving him assistance - none, by the way, while he was risking his life - "

Can't agree with that.

Half Safe was rescued more than once on the high seas by outside assistance. During one of the initial Atlantic crossing attempts, a freighter picked them up and hoisted Half Safe aboard, Carlin was about to scuttle Half Safe when the freighter saved them. Then they were stuck in the ocean very low on petrol and radioed for help, the Portuguese navy sent out a rescue ship ..with desperately needed fuel . I call that help in anybodies language, the whole trip would have been over without outside assistance . He was helped over and over by many people.

Nobody forced Carlin to do what he did, risking his life has nothing to do with it , that was his decision and he knew the risks. These days people still die on Mt Everest regularly but they took their chances and that's the end of it.

If anybody cast any doubt on his mechanical ability Carlin would raise his fists. He regularly beat up people including a guy who helped him repair Half Safe. Short tempered he was. Calling Elinore a moron all of the time. As a youth Carlin survived a knife fight but had a deep scar on his face for the rest of his life.

The author interviewed first hand witnesses , including the surviving co-drivers and many relatives , Ben's daughter and the documents. Carlin left a trail of empty gin bottles

[Lang]

Mike

I am not saying Ben was a nice guy but what has this got to do with the Half Safe journey? It's just grist for the scandal rag mill. Millions of people ranging from aggressive criminals, wife beaters, union organisers, vicious bosses, sporting thugs, egomaniac celebrities and every day obnoxious drunks, many fabulously successful in their fields, have all or more of Carlin's personal failings

Despite the sudden interest in Carlin's personal life Half Safe remains for the foreseeable future to be the only non-airborne machine to accomplish a full surface circumnavigation of the earth under its own power.

Yes he was rescued because of circumstances when he had a problem but he managed to come up with a solution by using available assistance and did not throw in the towel. Why he would consider scuttling a still floating vessel to tread water in the Atlantic is a mystery to me- I think that was after the freighter was alongside. The last thing the freighter captain would have wanted is to be stuffing around lifting a box out of the ocean, I am sure Carlin convinced him to make the effort. I concede that is help.

What I don't concede is the "snide remarks" about being helped over and over with finances and facilities (which all adventurers/explorers/pioneers/mountain climbers get as pre-planned support) and there was nobody who set out with him in a support vessel or provided ready-action safety teams or set up a rescue plan etc to reduce his risk. Today's sponsored heroes - and there are still lots of these great people out there - being helped over and over again have vastly more support and what to Carlin would be unbelievable risk reduction.

No man is an island and even fabulously rich adventurers like Richard Branson would never be able to carry out their projects without help "over and over again" from people with skills, facilities and knowledge beyond their capacity.

He did not promote risk of death as any part of his operation, in fact when you see him interviewed he took the extreme British stiff-upper lip attitude and dismissed danger, often with dry humour, as irrelevant. The journey was the thing and the risk was part of the operation.

I just mention the risk of death because that is at the core of reaction and what people want to place at the centre of an adventure story. What separates peoples attitudes to envelope pushers is their personal risk threshold. Those with a high bar can understand, the bulk can admire and the low bar people refer to Benjamin Franklin.

[Lang]

Mike

Just read the false start rescue page in "Half Safe"

Carlin never contemplated scuttling the vehicle. After the bearing failure he said they had all their gear ready packed to board a rescue ship (of which there were several around, being in the shipping lane). The tanker that rescued them came close merely to look at them.

Once on board the Norwegian tanker they were saying goodbye to Half Safe when the Captain said "Hell, you are not going to leave dat goddammed yeep lying around"

There was an unoccupied life boat position on the ship so they just lowered the lines, hooked up Half Safe and whisked her on board.

Also read the Portuguese Frigate story.

Carlin went to great pains to explain that at no time in any of his travels had he ever put out an SOS. "...we heard later that some vessel had reported receiving my SOS - a signal I have never radioed anywhere, any time. The mob demands drama."

The Portuguese Frigate came to check on them after the hurricane in which they were widely presumed lost. Carlin's radio call when he finally got through to give them Half Safe's position was sensationalised as an SOS when in fact it was not. During that call he casually mentioned for them to throw on a few drums of fuel as he was getting low from use during the storm (and probably would have run out close to their destination of Madeira). A similar venture today saved by a sat phone call and a charter boat bringing some fuel out would be looked on as good management solving the unforeseen storm use problem. Poor old Ben gets raised eyebrows about "getting rescued".

Lang

[Mike K]

Originally Posted by Lang

The Portuguese Frigate came to check on them after the hurricane in which they were widely presumed lost.

Hi All

If you read the lower paragraph on page 189 of HALF SAFE and the next two pages, you will clearly understand that Ben had worked out that he did NOT have enough fuel to reach Madeira , therefore, he radioed for help and he specifically asked for a fuel delivery, as described on page 191 .

" how we might snare fifty to sixty gallons of petrol "

The ship Flores, its primary task was to sail out to supply the fuel to Half Safe.


re: the earlier rescue, The book I am reading says that Ben pointed a signal light at the Norwegian tanker and tapped out SOS and that Ben had a hammer ready to make holes in Half Safe to sink her.

I believe the 1950's Half Safe book which didn't sell that well, is actually a very good read and the critics were unfair and harsh in their judgement . The pommy critics could not resist the opportunity to bring down another brash colonial upstart. There are few autographed copies of Half Safe around , I have seen one but don't have one myself.

[Lang]

Yes, he did not have enough fuel and as I said would have run out before Madeira. I think he said he had twenty hours sailing which would have left him about 50 miles short. They were very big news in Madeira and everywhere else for that matter and articles of the time indicate the frigate trip was a PR exercise offered by the authorities when it became clear they had survived the storm and needed fuel. They were not in a life or death situation.

I reread the story in my copy. Looks like we both failed to take notes.

He certainly said he had a hammer handy to tap a hole as you mentioned.

He tried to stop a ship at night with his torch SOS but it just sailed past after acknowledging the signal. The rescue did not come from the torch SOS. For some reason they let many probable rescue ships sail past because they were going in the wrong direction or for some other strange decision.

He tried the radio which was not cooperating but finally he "hooked" the tanker which I read to mean talked to him on the radio. I saw somewhere Carlin talking about this pick-up and he said the tanker came close to look at them out of curiosity. Maybe "hooked" a tanker mean't when it came to investigate they just jumped up and down waving?

Anyhow it is all just supposition and nit picking and the main message for me is they suffered a disaster, recovered, and instead of giving up after a fine try like most people, maintained their resolve into the next year to begin again.

Elinore obviously had the passion also and although she could have stayed with her family, returned to help preparations which despite her already proven susceptibility to seasickness led to the ultimately successful second departure. At that stage they were a team (with one Chief and one Indian) and she should be acknowledged for her courage and tenacity.

He was certainly rough on her. I thought his attitude to getting the rope caught in the prop was a bit off. "You got it caught, you get it out". He forced the poor girl to dive under the boat for hours while he pottered around inside working on the engine.

Anyone who has ever gone boating with a woman knows the sea has some magic effect of bringing on stupidity or maybe the problem is it has some magic effect of turning the male partner into a shouting Captain Bligh!

Lang

[Richard Coutts-Smith]

I was fascinated by this book when I was given a signed copy some 35 years ago, in my mind it was a fantastic feat, such a thrill to see Half Safe at Corowa, bit of a shock to find out it was yellow!
I always thought the pic of Ben sitting in a shed staring at the stripped jeep summed him up in many ways.

Back a few posts Lang mentions First Overland (by Tim Slessor), coincidentally that was the day we left for the High Country, I came across a copy while looking for some tent time reading material. It appears that I was given a copy in 1991.... time to read it again. Written with some entertaining dry humour (German Autobahn comment springs to mind) it was a delight. In hindsight this trip (32 000miles, 6 blokes, 2 series 1 SWB Landies) was only possible for about 3 years. It was filmed, with the unprocessed film being sent when possible to their contact at the BBC, a young chap by the name of David Attenborought eventually shown in B&W, sound dubbed in. A few years back a documentary with lots of the film (in colour) and interviews with some of the guys was released, Magnificent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OS8G-103ZRE
Rich.