Description: They had only one thing in common: the ambition to cross the Atlantic in a rowboat, alone. John Fairfax set off on a westward course, starting in the Canary Islands with his sights on Florida. Tom McClean charted an eastward course from Newfoundland to Ireland. Each arrived at their destination within days of the first landing on the Moon in 1969. Hansen takes us inside their adventures across the Atlantic: nail-biting tales of endurance facing gale-force winds, menacing sharks, creative problem-solving, and much more. -- adapted from jacket
Brief description: James R. Hansen is professor emeritus of history at Auburn University. A former historian for NASA, Hansen is the author of fourteen books involving air and space and exploration. His 2005 book First Man, the only authorized biography of Neil Armstrong, has on two separate occasions appeared on the New York Times Bestseller list and has been translated into two dozen languages. In 1995 NASA nominated his book Spaceflight Revolution for a Pulitzer Prize, the only time the U.S. space agency has ever made such a nomination. His 2009 book, Truth, Lies, and O-Rings: Inside the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster, has been called by reviewers "the definitive study" of the Challenger accident. He lives in Birmingham, Alabama.
Review Quotes: "What happened on these journeys -- 70 days for McClean, 180 days for Fairfax -- makes for reading both enthralling and horrifying. Each man had to row around 23,000 strokes a day for months on end. Hansen skillfully interweaves their stories, recounting tales of bleeding hands, capsizings, shark attacks, storms of biblical proportions, freak waves, brutal heat, freezing cold, physical prostration and psychic collapse. Hansen shows impressive research, fine storytelling skills and mastery of detail. The real star of the book is Tom McClean, today 81 years old and living in Scotland. Hansen calls him his 'nautical Gandalf, ' with 'veiled power, good intentions, care for all creatures of good," adding that McClean "showed me, Jedi-like, how to steer my boat.'"--Douglas Preston "The New York Times Book Review"