Today in History - May 13: Australian adventurer circumnavigates the globe in a modified Ford
Ben and Elinore Carlin drove their amphibious car across the Atlantic. Nine Archives
An Australian mining engineer and adventurer completed his circumnavigation of the globe in an amphibious car on May 13, 1958.
Ben Carlin first hatched upon the idea to drive around the world when he first saw a Ford GPA in World War II.
"With a bit of titivation, you could go around the world in one of those things," he said of the amphibious vehicle.
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Ford refused to sponsor the journey because they feared the car wouldn't make it. Guildford Grammar School Archives
After adapting the vehicle to be fitted with a bed in the back, he convinced his bride Elinore that they should spend their honeymoon driving across the Atlantic.
Carlin offered Ford the opportunity to sponsor the voyage, but they refused, believing the trip would likely kill them.
The Carlins would drive from Halifax in Canada to the Azores Islands.
It was anticipated to take 10 days, but took 32, after the pair unwittingly drove into a hurricane.
After losing radio contact, it was feared the Carlins had been lost at sea.
Along the way, both Ben and Elinore suffered hallucinations while trying to stay on the correct course.
But they emerged to great fanfare at Madeira after getting a refuel from a passing cruiser mid-Atlantic.
From there, they were from the Canary Islands on to Morocco.
They then took their car across the Strait of Gibraltar, up through Europe and across the English Channel.
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The pair had to drive through Morocco at night because of the overwhelming heat of the day. Guildford Grammar School Archives
After three years in England, they set out again, driving across Europe, over the Bosporus Strait into Turkey and into the Middle East.
"The 2000 miles across the Atlantic from Nova Scotia to the Azores were in many ways much less worrying than a similar distance covered on murderous roads in Persia," Carlin later said.
They then took a break from their international odyssey by taking their car by steamer from Calcutta to Perth.
But when Carlin set out to continue the voyage, his wife decided to stay in Australia. She was tired of the seasickness she suffered in the car and needed a break.
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The Carlins were feared lost in the Atlantic but emerged safely weeks later. Nine Archives
Instead, Carlin set out alone from Calcutta before picking up another Australian travelling companion in Burma.
From Vietnam, he went overwater to Hong Kong, then Taiwan, then Japan.
From Japan he went to the USSR, then Alaska, through the United States to finally Montreal.
The journey had taken ten years and crossed 17,000km by sea and 62,000km by land.
Seven months later, Ben and Elinore were divorced. She went on to remarry a pilot she met on the Azores, at the end of their first leg of the journey.
The amphibious car is now on display at his former school, Guildford Grammar in Perth.
Ben Carlin nicknamed his car the Half-Safe, named after the slogan of a deodorant company. Guildford Grammar School Archives
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