Author Topic: Event Overshadowed By Another Event: John Fairfax Rowing Across An Ocean  (Read 799 times)

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Photo credit: Ocean Rowing Society


John Fairfax lived an exciting life filled with danger and adventure. At 13, he temporarily left home and went to live alone in the jungle. He survived by hunting wild animals and selling their pelts for supplies. At age 20, a troubled Fairfax wanted to kill himself, and he made the odd choice of using a jaguar attack as his preferred suicide method. He waited patiently in the jungle for a jaguar to attack him but also kept a revolver close in case he changed his mind. And he did. Right when a jaguar pounced, Fairfax shot it. He then sold its pelt. Later, when he was finally looking for a serious job, he found one as an apprentice . . . to a pirate. Therefore, his next years were spent mostly as a smuggler, although he did actually learn navigational skills as a result of his apprenticeship.

None of those is the main reason why Fairfax is remembered today, though. On January 20, 1969, Fairfax set off on his own from the Canary Islands in a boat. On July 19, he arrived in Florida, becoming the first person to row across an ocean solo.

Fairfax became the talk of the town, but only for a day. His bad timing didn’t allow him to bask in the adulation of the media because the very next day, something truly historic was happening. On July 20, 1969, all of humanity was watching as the Apollo 11 astronauts became the first humans to walk on the Moon. -- http://listverse.com/

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