Traveling around the world these days is fast and convenient due to modern transportation. But before planes and bullet trains were invented, people had to travel the old-fashioned way, on ships or sometimes on foot. And perhaps, one traveler who truly had it rough was James Holman, who circumnavigated the globe in four different trips during the 19th century.
Holman had entered the Royal Navy between the ages of 10 and 12. After serving about 12 years, he contracted a disease, a rare form of arthritis which first affected his joints, and later left him completely blind.
He could have lived a comfortable life at Windsor Castle on his navy pension, but Holman longed for adventure and thrill, so he first decided to study medicine in the University of Edinburgh to figure out whether his arthritis could be cured.
When it was clear to him that the disease was final and incurable, Holman hatched this idea of traveling around the world. He made four separate trips. The first was a Grand Tour of Europe. He published a book about his travels which became a huge hit, despite having such a long title.
During that trip, Holman crossed Siberia which was featured in his second successful book, in which he recounted in detail how he and his driver ate stale bread for weeks, and how he was accused of being a spy and taken to the Polish border.
Holman's third trip involved going to Africa and parts of Asia. Despite the successes of his first two books, it seemed interest started to die down, and people were no longer buying his third book. And finally, his swansong trip took him from Spain down to the Middle East, then from Egypt to Bosnia, Montenegro, and finally, Hungary.
Holman's fourth book was never published, and he died just a few days after completing his memoir in 1858. The end might have been bittersweet, but one can truly say that James Holman had lived an adventurous life.
(Image credit: John Richardson Jackson, Public Domain/Wikimedia Commons)