Completely Mad: Tom McClean, John Fairfax, and the Epic Race to Row Solo Across the Atlantic

· Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Mitch Crawford
Audiobook
14 hr 50 min
Unabridged
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About this audiobook

From the New York Times bestselling author of First Man comes a sweeping saga involving two extraordinary-and extraordinarily different-adventurers who have only one thing in common: the ambition to cross the Atlantic in a rowboat . . . alone. The two men couldn't have been more different. John Fairfax was a playboy, gambler, 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 US 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. With gripping and insightful prose, James R. Hansen brings to life Fairfax and McClean's expeditions, from their battle with the elements to their own inner demons. Completely Mad is a nail-biting, epic tale of endurance, and listeners will be gripped until the end to find out who won.

About the author

James R. Hansen is professor emeritus of history at Auburn University. A former historian for NASA, Hansen is the author of fourteen books, including Spaceflight Revolution and First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong. He lives in Birmingham, Alabama.

A high school teacher for twenty years in history, economics, fine arts, and computer science, Mitch Crawford now works as an actor, model, and voice-over artist. His sincere, trustworthy voice resonates well with children's literature, first- and third-person POV fiction, nonfiction, biography/memoir, and self-help books.

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Narrated by Mitch Crawford