Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
11
THE OCEAN WITHIN
The first solo circumnavigation marked the end of the great
epoch of round-the-world sailing but by no means did it put a stop
to mariners sailing round the world. That apparent contradiction in
terms is simply explained. Circumnavigation voyages after 1900 (or
more accurately after 1918) had a different character from all of
those that had gone before. To be sure, the dangers and the thrills
were still there. The cruel sea had not become more benign. For all
the advantages of twentieth-century technology, modern sailing ves-
sels were still minute, vulnerable craft alone in an alien environment.
What was different was the passing of the 'unknown'. The surface of
the planet no longer included mystery zones. The oceans had been
charted and, if there remained any tiny islands or atolls unvisited by
voyagers, satellite mapping had pinpointed them before the century's
end. There was nothing 'out there' to be discovered or claimed as a
colonial prize or probed with a naive curiosity. Air travel enabled mil-
lions in the world's more affluent nations to take holidays in distant
lands. Creeping globalisation ensured that what they discovered at
their destinations would be, in many respects, what they had left be-
hind them in their home towns and cities. Circumnavigation in the
modern age is still an adventure but an adventure located on the
ocean within.
The 'war to end wars' was a profound shock to the system of
western society. It left many survivors with a malaise, a cynicism, an
emotional void, a compulsion to go in search of meaning or perhaps
just to escape from an environment that had none. 'After the war I
could neither work in a city nor lead the dull life of a businessman. I
