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"  Your story traces the journey of Ben Carlin, an engineer from rural Australia who decided to circle the entire globe in a single vehiclean aquatic jeep. How did you find out about him? A friend and I were on a sailboat, briefly trapped at sea, about a decade ago. It was miserable and boring, and he started telling me about a guy who had done this by choice for seven years of his life, traveling around the world. I didnt believe him, but when we got home I checked it out and realized it seemed to be a true story. So I got Ben Carlins book and read it, and the story fascinated me. Not because it was some poetic tale of a national hero, but because it seemed so steeped in sarcasm. It was all a big joke to him. This guy really did travel the world in a worn-out army jeep. But it happened in the 1940s and 50swhy was such a crazy story overlooked for so long? Nobody believed him. This was before you could just upload pictures and updates of yourself all the time, so even while he was doing it, no one believed it could really be happening. Even now, Ive had friends ask me for proof after reading the story. Its just so ridiculous, which is something I found really interesting. Even today, with all the documentation, there are people who want to claim its a hoax.  The whole situation seems completely foreign to me, as someone who has basically sat on his ass all his life for his vocation. You want to live vicariously through this guy, but you also really, really dont want to be in his situation.  Ben and his wife and traveling companion, Elinor, initially thought the stunt would make them rich and famous, but the public lost interest in their gimmick before the Carlins could even finish the trip. Did Ben ever sell his story? He did intend to make money off book deals and tours, but he sabotaged himself the whole way. He didnt want to do any promotion, and what promotion he did, he screwed up. It was so sad to watch this guy bury his own legacy under his stubbornness, but its that same stubbornness that made him keep going. What were the wildest tidbits you unearthed once you started digging? On the very first leg of the trip, instead of doing something simple like driving across the U.S., he left from Nova Scotia and drove across the Atlantic for months. Thats just so absurd and insane, and of course he barely made it. Thats where it all became real for me, and I started wondering what it would be like to be stuck in a room the size of an outhouse, pacing back and forth for 30 days, being battered by waves. It sounds like some kind of psychological experiment.  Meanwhile, in his book and journals, Ben describes the journey in these very poetic passages, as if hes this Odyssean character. But what was really going on was that everything in his personal and financial life was falling apart. Thats what really struck me. Looking at his photographs really shows that. By the time he gets to Japan, after his wife has left him, he just looks spent and crazy. You make it clear that Ben Carlins trip around the globe was downright suicidal. Where do we draw the line between wily adventurer and madman, and what side do you think Carlin ended up on? The trip was absolutely suicidal. There are so many instances in which he barely made it out. Even on one of his trial runs he got carbon monoxide poisoning and almost died. It astounds me that he didnt just give up and leave when his wife did, and that he made it.  The line between adventurer and madman is one he crosses the whole time, and I think he finally tips when Elinor takes off. Thats the last rock of semistability in this thing, reminding him that its supposed to be fun, its a joke, something he can make money off of. Its a fine line theyre dancing together, and without her he falls off the edge. But he still makes it, and thats whats incredible. The trip ruins his life, and even he admits that eventually.  When he finally reaches Alaska, he expects complete elation, but instead he was depressed, because he had to go into the real world. As miserable as it was on his little jeep, it was his world. If something broke, he could fix it. He was a true DIY guy, and he just couldnt stand to listen to other people. In the end, that completely ruined him.  Has Ben Carlins success on the trip, at the expense of all other areas of his life, taught you anything? For me, Bens story didnt inspire me to go out aloneit made me want to listen to what other people have to say. Watching him totally destroy his relationships with the publishers of his book, as well as with everyone else, made me think about how important it is not to get too pickled in your own juices. Why do you think people will care more about this story now than they did in the 1950s? The ripples of this trip still exist. The wake of Half-Safe is still rolling up on foreign shores. In writing the piece, I found Diedre, Carlins daughter, who spent four years thinking about responding to the one letter she had from him before mailing one that arrived two weeks after his death. He died never knowing she knew he existed, and its a sad parallel to how his life turned out. That story didnt exist as part of Carlins tale until I dug it up.  I actually just got a letter from a lady in Alaska who met him in the 50s, on the Aleutian Islands. He showed her the jeep; tried to hit on her, you know. She had been telling this story to her kids and grandkids for decades, and when she finally saw in print that he did this, that he really took that jeep around the globe, it blew her away. Its funny that something so obscure could still be in the public consciousness, but it is.  Given how easily such a story could go viral today, do you expect anyone else to attempt a trip like this? Oh man, no one will ever attempt this again. First of all, no one would want to, and second, no one could make it happen. Were talking about endless visas and passports and driving through Iran . . . thats just never going to happen again.  Even mechanically its impossible. Carlin was able to take a 1942 jeep around the world because he could make parts for it on the fly. It was a simple machine, and it could be patched up along the way. Modern vehicles just arent built for that.  It seems like this was the one point in time when something like this could happen, when technology and travel came to a head. And then this time disappeared. Carlin happened to be there to do it. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/adventure/outdoors/a8599/a-madman-an-amphibious-jeep-and-a-trip-around-the-world-14962549/>