In this bracing adventure tale, the story of John Fairfax and Tom McClean and their quests to row across the Atlantic are woven together for the first time. Fairfax would set off from the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa with his sights on Florida. McClean charted a course from Newfoundland to Ireland. The two men couldn't have been more different. John Fairfax was a golden-haired playboy, gambler, whiskey and gun smuggler, and ex-pirate who courted the press and who brazenly took time off from his goal of reaching America to hop aboard large ships for a drink, a shower, and good food. The egoless Tom McClean was an orphan with a tough, Dickensian childhood, who ran off to become a British paratrooper and later joined the SAS. Tom was a purist who loved his boat Silver and never once took time off from rowing. After 70 days, he landed on the rocky coast of Ireland to no fanfare and headed straight to the nearest pub. Though the two men's remarkable transoceanic journeys seem pulled from a different era, both finished within days of the first landing on the Moon: July 20th, 1969. With gripping and insightful prose, James R. Hansen brings to life Fairfax and McCIean's expeditions, from their battle with the elements to their own inner demons. Completely Mad is a nail-biting, epic tale of endurance, and readers will be riveted until the end to find out who won.