Half-Safe
A Story of Love, Obsession, and History's Most Insane Around-the-world Adventure
By James Nestor
1991
First Published
3.43
Average Rating
40
Number of Pages
In 1948, a young Australian mining engineer named Ben Carlin set out to do the impossible: circumnavigate the globe, by land and sea, in a single vehicle. The vehicle in question was an amphibious jeep developed by the U.S. Army, which Carlin christened Half-Safe, after a deodorant slogan. It was a mechanical mongrel that was supposed to move with equal ease across land and water but in practice wasn't much good for either one. Undaunted, Carlin and his wife Elinore set off across the Atlantic Ocean with dreams of fame and fortune, and of carving a small notch in history. What happened next is one of the most bizarre, remarkable, and forgotten adventure stories of the 20th century. In Half-Safe, author James Nestor endeavors to uncover Ben Carlin's fate and finds a gripping story of love, danger, and extraordinary perseverance that spans three oceans and five continents. Half-Safe takes us from the eye of an Atlantic Ocean hurricane to the sweltering Sahara to the impenetrable jungles of Southeast Asia—and into the mind of a man who could overcome everything but his own demons.
Avg Rating
3.43
Number of Ratings
289
5 STARS
15%
4 STARS
30%
3 STARS
39%
2 STARS
12%
1 STARS
3%
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Author
James Nestor
Author · 7 books
James Nestor is a journalist who has written for Outside magazine, Men's Journal, Scientific American, Dwell, National Public Radio, The New York Times, The Atlantic, the San Francisco Chronicle, and others.
