Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
By Gordon Bass, Ebury Press, $34.99.
It was an amazing set of circumstances that led American writer Gordon Bass to write about Australian adventurer Ben Carlin who undertook an epic journey, circling the globe, over land and sea, in his rusting amphibious jeep in 1948.
He found Carlin’s book, Half Safe, at home and became aware that it had been written by the adventurer in 1955. Furthermore, he realised that his father and grandfather had known and helped Carlin to prepare for his journey.
Carlin circumnavigated the world, and ended up setting a world record, but the feat took him much longer than he’d anticipated.
In what is a methodically researched examination, we get a captivating picture of how a man took on a superhuman task when there was no need to do so.
As Bass explains, Perth-based Carlin never had an explanation as to why he was taking on the challenge — indeed he hated that question from journalists.
Bass said he wanted to know all “I could about Ben — not just during his journey, but before and after it as well. If Ben’s life had three acts, and the journey around the world was the big second act, what were the first and third? What set him up for the adventure, and what happened afterwards? I thought there was a more complete story to tell”.
When Ben finally pulled into Times Square a decade later, he found himself alone and forgotten, his legacy little more than a wake of women and empty whiskey bottles. The worst was yet to come.
The Last Great Australian Adventurer is the compelling account of Ben Carlin’s attempt to make an enduring mark on the world.
