Completely Mad

Tom McClean, John Fairfax, and the Epic of the Race to Row Solo Across the Atlantic

James R. Hansen

• Publisher: Pegasus Books
• Year: 2023
• ISBN:
  9781639364183
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Historical Biographies
• Index: History

From the New York Times bestselling author of The First Man comes a sweeping saga involving two extraordinary—and extraordinarily different—adventurerswho have only one thingin common: the ambition to cross the Atlantic in a rowboat... alone. In this bracing adventure tale, the storiesof John Fairfax and Tom McLean 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, gun smuggler, and ex-pirate who blamed his boat often, 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. He courted the press like a modern-day Richard Branson or Elon Musk. 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 (his training rivaled the U.S. Navy Seals). Tom was a purist who loved his boat Silver and never once took time off from rowing to sun himself on a remote beach or jump aboard a cruise ship. 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 embarkedwithin days of the first landing on the Moon: July 20th, 1969. Filled with gale-force winds, backbreaking effort, menacing sharks, playful dolphins, awing natural beauty, great mishaps, failed equipment, hyperthermia, near-drowning, the fighting of mental and physical lethargy, creative problem-solving, phantom illusions on the water, and glorious moments of bliss, Completely Mad stands alongside other classics of ocean adventure. With gripping and insightful prose, James R. Hansen bringsto life Fairfax and McLean's expeditions, from their battlewith the elements to their own inner demons. Completely Mad isa nail-biting, epic tale of endurance, and readers will be gripped until the end to find out who won.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Maps
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• Prologue
• Part 1: Tom McClean and ‘Super Silver’
• Part 2: John Fairfax and ‘Britannia’
• Part 3: Rough Passage
• Part 4: Come On, Florida!
• Part 5: Could It Be Ireland?
• Epilogue
• Photographs
• Postscript: John Fairfax
• Postscript: Tom McClean
• Essay on Sources
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• Bibliography
• Copyright