Ben Carlin in Montréal, 1948 (Source » Wikipedia)
In 1948, with dreams of fame and fortune, a young Australian mining engineer and his American wife set out to circumnavigate the world, by land and sea, in a single vehicle.
The vehicle in question was an amphibious jeep developed by the U.S. Army, which Carlin named Half-Safe. It was a mechanical cross-breed that was supposed to move with equal ease across land and water but in practice wasn’t much good for either.
Ben Carlin and his wife Elinore started their adventure from Montréal, sailing across the Atlantic Ocean to the Sahara Desert.
10 years later, upon returning to Montréal on May 12, 1958, Frederick Benjamin Carlin became the first person to circumnavigate the world in an amphibious vehicle.
The extraordinary adventure had covered 17,780 km (11,050 mi) by sea and 62,744 km (38,987 mi) by land, crossing three oceans and passing through 38 countries over five continents.
(Videos below)
Anyone who grew up in the 1970’s in North America or Europe will know that van life is nothing new.
