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The Last Great Australian Adventurer

The Last Great Australian Adventurer

Ben Carlin's epic journey around the world by amphibious Jeep.

by Gordon Bass
Paperback
Publication Date: 31/07/2017

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The extraordinary adventure story of Ben Carlin, who circled the world, over land and sea, in his rusting amphibious jeep.

In 1948, Ben Carlin set out from New York City with an audacious, lunatic plan to circumnavigate the world in an army surplus amphibious jeep called Half-Safe.

Fuelled by cigarettes and adrenaline, the Australian army major pushed his fragile, claustrophobic vehicle through fierce Atlantic hurricanes, across uncharted North African desert, into dense South-East Asian jungle and over the icy dark swells of the North Pacific. It was a 50,000-mile roll of the dice that by all rights should have killed him.

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. And the worst was yet to come.

Was it all a fool’s errand? Or a pure manifestation of spirit? Where does a dream end and an obsession begin? What’s an acceptable cost to pay, and to what lengths will a person go not to be left with the haunting question: what if?

The Last Great Australian Adventurer is the compelling account of Ben Carlin’s attempt to make an enduring mark on the world at the twilight of the Golden Age of Adventure.

ISBN:
9781925324990
9781925324990
Category:
Adventure
Format:
Paperback
Publication Date:
31-07-2017
Language:
English
Publisher:
Random House Australia
Country of origin:
Australia
Pages:
384
Dimensions (mm):
233x154x37mm
Weight:
0.54kg
Gordon Bass

Gordon Bass grew up in Texas but spent his childhood summers on excavations led by his father, George F. Bass, called the 'Indiana Jones of underwater archaeology' by TIME magazine. Living on remote parts of the Turkish Mediterranean coast sparked an early fascination with the intersection of adventure, history and technology.

Gordon later discovered that his father's career had been influenced by meeting an extraordinary Australian adventurer named Ben Carlin when he was just 14 years old. But who was Ben Carlin? In his first book, Gordon sets out to learn more about the Perth native who in 1948 embarked on an audacious attempt to circle the world in a surplus amphibious army jeep. Carlin achieved brief fame in the 1950s but was forgotten by the world long before his journey was over.

Why did Ben vanish from the public eye? What happened next? And what was his connection to Gordon's family? For the past 20 years Gordon has worked as a writer, editor and creative director for magazines, media brands and companies ranging from Maxim, Men's Journal and Wired to Amazon and Time Inc. In 2013 he optioned a scripted television series to AMC, home to Mad Men and Breaking Bad.

In addition to his work as a writer and editor, Gordon is an executive producer of the 2016 record Dirty Wonder by singer-songwriter K Phillips, who has toured in support of Counting Crows and Rob Thomas.

Gordon has served as a director and communications chair of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology, which his father founded in 1975. Along the way he has also bartended in Japan and taught English in Turkey. He lives outside New York City with children's book author Jennifer Vogel Bass and their two boys.

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