Thomas Stevens
Thomas Stevens (born December 24, 1854 in Great Berkhamstead , † January 24, 1935 in London ) was a British author and adventurer who was the first person to circumnavigate the world on a bicycle .
Early years
Thomas Stevens grew up in Berkhamstead as the eldest son of the worker William Stevens. Even as a child he had a passion for sports and showed great interest in adventure and travel literature. After graduating from school, he was employed in a greengrocer's and provided for the family support, since his father had emigrated to the United States ; the family should follow. Before that happened, the mother fell ill and William Stevens returned to Britain . In 1871 Tom Stevens had saved enough money to emigrate to the USA himself. Two years later his parents and brothers followed him. At first he worked on a farm in Wyoming and in a mine in Colorado . Then he moved to San Francisco ,
The circumnavigation of the world
In San Francisco, Stevens learned to ride a penny farthing. Soon he set out on his first voyage, from one coast of the USA to the other; the route was 5953 kilometers long. He left San Francisco on April 22, 1884 and arrived in Boston 103 days later .
Stevens wrote a series of articles for Outing magazine , which belonged to the bicycle manufacturer Colonel Albert Pope , about his ride on an ordinary 50-inch high-rise bike from Columbia . Pope agreed to finance a trip around the world for Stevens that would last three years. On April 9, 1885, Stevens left New York and reached Liverpool on April 19, 1885 with the ship , which he left on May 2, accompanied by some British cyclists. Stevens rode his Pope bike from France, through Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria to the Ottoman Empire .
On his bike trip to the east, he was repeatedly marveled at by crowds who asked him to do demonstrations by bike. He took it with humor, even if he was annoyed by it and by constant questioning by the police. In Constantinople he took a break; on the way he was ambushed, but was able to scare off the robbers with his Smith & Wesson revolver. He spent the winter in Tehran to go on to Russia , which he was denied, so that despite warnings he chose a route through Afghanistan and India . In Farah , Afghanistan , however, he was imprisoned and prevented from continuing, so that he had to return to Constantinople by train and travel to India by ship. There he crossed the country on the Grand Trunk Road to Hong Kong . Again he ignored warnings and drove on to China, which he left after a few weeks for Shanghai because of the hostile attitude of the residents . There he took a steamboat to Japan , which he liked because of its friendly population and good roads. On December 17, 1886, Stevens reached Yokohama , the destination of his journey, after driving 13,500 miles (22,000 kilometers). He took the ship on to San Francisco, wrote a two-volume, 1000-page book about his experiences, became famous and traveled through the USA to readings and lectures.
Travels to Africa, Russia and India
In December 1888, the New York World newspaper approached him to follow the trail of Henry Morton Stanley in Africa . Stanley had traveled in the direction of the Congo River to free the governor of the southernmost province of the Sudan Equatoria , the German researcher Emin Pascha , from the hand of the Mahdist Abdallahi ibn Muhammad . This demanded that Queen Victoria should come to Sudan and convert to Islam .
Stevens traveled to Zanzibar and led a six-month search expedition through Kenya and Tanzania , which he reported in articles that prompted New York World's rival paper , the New York Herald , to also send a reporter to search for Stanley, which was absurd Competition that Stevens eventually won. He met Emin Pasha, who was allowed to come with him. The book about his adventures Scouting for Stanley in East Africa was also very successful.
In 1890, New York World sent him to Russia, where Stevens bought a horse named Texas from a US show troupe and rode it 1000 miles (1600 kilometers) through the Russian hinterland to the Black Sea . He visited Leo Tolstoy's country house , interviewed the poet, and on his return wrote the book Through Russia on a Mustang .
Then Thomas Stevens, who had no nautical experience, bought a ship and used it to sail rivers in Eastern Europe. A series of articles about these trips appeared in the World . In 1893 he made his last great trip to India to discover the secrets of Hindu ascetics. There he met a hermit who did amazing things, which Stevens photographed. Back in the US, he showed his photos as a slide show and confirmed to the New York Times that the wondrous stories told about Indian miracles are "all true". The lectures and photos received mixed reactions, and no longer articles were printed about them. Stevens also confessed to friends that he was tired of traveling.
Back in England
The following year Thomas Stevens returned to England and married the widow Frances Barnes. She brought six children into the marriage, including two daughters, Violet and Irene Vanbrugh , who would later become famous actresses. For several years, Stevens worked as the manager of the famous Garrick Theater . During and after the First World War , he volunteered to manufacture artificial body parts for wounded soldiers. Thomas Stevens died of cancer at the age of 80; he is buried in East Finchley Cemetery .
Publications
- 20,000 miles on the penny farthing, 1884–1886 . Edited by Hans-Erhard Lessing . Thienemann: Stuttgart 1984. ISBN 3-522-60670-1
- Scouting for Stanley in East Africa . Cassell Publishing Company, New York, 1890
- Through Russia on a Mustang . Cassell Publishing Company, New York, 1891
Individual evidence
- ^ Geof Koss: The Fearless Traveler. Around the word with Thomas Stevens. 2010, p. 18.
- ↑ Thomas Stevens on findagrave.com
Web links
- A bike tour for the ages
- Tom Stevens on dacorumheritage.org.uk (English)
- Geof Koss: The Fearless Traveler. Around the word with Thomas Stevens. (PDF; 1.3 MB) In: Adventure Cyclist . May 2010, pp. 10-18.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Stevens, Thomas |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British author and adventurer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 24, 1854 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Great Berkhamstead |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 24, 1935 |
| Place of death | London |