23 Facts About Ben Carlin

Frederick Benjamin Carlin was an Australian adventurer who was the first person to circumnavigate the world in an amphibious vehicle.

In World War II, Ben Carlin was posted to the Indian Army Corps of Engineers, serving in India, Italy, and throughout the Middle East.

Ben Carlin resumed the journey with new partners, travelling through South-East Asia and the Far East to the northern tip of Japan, and then to Alaska.

Frederick Benjamin Carlin was born on 27 July 1912, in Northam, Western Australia, a town in the state's Wheatbelt.

Ben Carlin's mother, Charlotte Amelia Bramwell, died when he was four, and he was raised by his father, Frederick Cecil Carlin, who was an electrical engineer employed with the Western Australian Government Railways.

In India, towards the end of the war, Ben Carlin had noticed a GPA in an army vehicle lot.

Ben Carlin originally tried to convince Ford to sponsor his proposed trip, but the company refused, believing the craft would not make the journey.

Ben Carlin almost decided to abandon the journey and liquidate Half-Safe, but was convinced by his wife to continue.

Ben Carlin later noted: "the 2000 miles across the Atlantic from Nova Scotia to the Azores were in many ways much less worrying than a similar distance covered on murderous roads in Persia".

At the start of his voyage, Ben Carlin had said he would not travel to Australia or New Zealand, because petrol was "too dear" there.

Half-Safe's Australian tour began in late October 1955 in Perth, where Ben Carlin grew up, and included a tour of his old school, Guildford Grammar.

Half-Safe was returned to Calcutta on a steamship in January 1956; however, Elinore, Ben Carlin's wife, left the trip in Australia, having tired of the long travel and the constant seasickness she was experiencing.

Hanley returned to Australia at this stage, while Ben Carlin rested in Japan, again performing much-needed repairs.

Ben Carlin's aim was to travel directly from Wakkanai to Shemya, a small island in the Near Islands group of the Semichi Islands chain, part of the Aleutian Islands running southwest of the Alaskan mainland.

Ben Carlin would go on to write Once a Fool: From Tokyo to Alaska by Amphibious Jeep, a detailed account of his experiences with Carlin and Half-Safe, as well as becoming a prolific author on topics relating to Mesoamerica and East Asia, publishing over 100 books.

Ben Carlin subsequently drove solo to Seattle, arriving in early November 1957.

Ben Carlin arrived in Toronto, on 10 May 1958, and three days later arrived in Montreal, completing his ten-year journey.

Ben Carlin remained in the country for a period, appearing on the lecture circuit, before returning to Perth, where he took up residence in Cottesloe.

Ben Carlin died in Perth in March 1981, of a heart attack, and was cremated at Karrakatta Cemetery.

Ben Carlin left his share in Half-Safe to his old school, Guildford Grammar, as well as a sizeable endowment for the purposes of funding a scholarship.

Ben Carlin had previously offered the craft to the Western Australian Maritime Museum, which declined the offer due to a lack of exhibition space.

Money from Ben Carlin's estate was used to found the Charlotte Ben Carlin Scholarship, awarded for "the proficiency of the English language with the avoidance of cliches".

Guinness World Records recognises Ben Carlin as having completed the "first and only circumnavigation by an amphibious vehicle".