Montreal-Tokyo By Jeep

After spending World War II "building a long chain of chainless latrines from Calcutta to Cassino," Australian Engineer Ben Carlin was understandably anxious to get away from it all. And the amphibious jeep he saw rusting on a deserted U.S. Army Air Force field in Bengal gave him an idea. "You know, Mac," he told a friend, "with a bit of titivation you could go around the world in one of those things."

The more he thought about it, the more Carlin liked the idea. It seemed "a nice exercise in technology, masochism and chance -a form of sport." He went to the U.S., bought an amphibious jeep in Maryland, named her Half Safe, tuned her up, told his wife Elinore to climb aboard, and headed for Canada. After four false starts he got to Montreal. Two years later he was ready to tool down the roads at a gay clip, and when he hit the seashore he kept right on going -splashing toward the Azores.

Last week, bearded, bushed and suffering from a monumental thirst, he pulled into Tokyo. In his journeying, he was ten years, $35,000 and 30,000 miles from Montreal. He had driven his clumsy craft across the Atlantic Ocean, Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, parts of the Indian Ocean, the South China Sea and the East China Sea. Between him and his goal there are now only 3,100 relatively calm miles of the north Pacific and a 6,000-mile overland trip across Alaska, Canada and the U.S. If his luck holds, he is sure to become the first man ever to jeep around the world. Looking back on his adventure, Carlin figures he is also sure to be the last.

A Flat Near Zagreb. Somehow, the 18-ft. 3-in. Half Safe, with her waddling 5-ft. 3-in. beam, survived an Atlantic hurricane. When he got to England, after the first leg of his journey, Skipper Carlin spent three years writing about his early adventures (Half Safe, William Morrow & Co., Inc. $5) and refitting his ship. He lengthened her sloping superstructure fore and aft, thickened her neoprene waterproofing, beefed up her fuel capacity. Interior steel fittings were replaced with aluminum and plastic until the craft was 600 Ibs. lighter. All told, the Half Safe weighed 3 1/2 tons with a full cargo; every spare inch was filled with equipment -radio, stove, water jugs, oil cans, camera film, cans of food and dirty laundry.

The refitting job finished, the Carlins beat their way from London to the English Channel and drove across to Calais. They motored over the Simplon Pass into Italy, crossed Yugoslavia and Greece. Outside Zagreb they had their only flat. On through Ankara, across high, arid plateaus, down through the Taurus Mountains and across Syria the Half Safe chugged along. In Iran the craft was mistaken for a Russian tank and got a military escort to the Pakistan border. At twilight in Teheran the Half Safe smacked into a traffic island but suffered only a slight loss of paint.

Monsoons in Calcutta. The steering gear broke down and had to be replaced. The sun beating through the window of the jeep turned it into a galloping greenhouse. "I got her livable," says Carlin, "at the cost of chronic bronchitis. A port with an air scoop played a jet of air into my left ear."

Monsoon rains greeted the Carlins in India, and they put up in Calcutta for repairs. There Elinore, 39, who had been seasick all across the Atlantic, thought of the ocean travel ahead and decided to jump ship. Skipper Carlin ran advance ads in Australian newspapers for a replacement. All he wanted was a strong swimmer who was also a motor mechanic and a radio maintenance man and had enough money to repatriate himself from anywhere enroute. He got a 23-year-old Perth draftsman named Barry Hanley who knew something about small boats.

Carlin crossed the Bay of Bengal alone, met Hanley in Akyab, Burma. Together, the new shipmates crossed Burma and headed toward Thailand. Neglected British military roads were so bad that Carlin says, "I wouldn't drive that way again for Gracie Kelly and -L-1,000, with Rudolph the Rainier's job thrown in."

Fireworks in Formosa. The Half Safe pushed on through Cambodia and Vietnam. Ahead, bridges were out, so Carlin set his course straight for Hong Kong, 500 miles over the South China Sea. It was the longest transoceanic hop since the Atlantic. The travelers lived on bread, fruit and canned beans. Leaded gasoline fouled the engine and Carlin somehow managed to do a complete valve job at sea. Safe in Hong Kong, Carlin converted his engine to run on kerosene, only to find there was none available.

Formosa gave the Half Safe a fine welcome: fireworks, a military escort and free watermelon at every corner. "It's true of islands everywhere," says Carlin. "Only on islands do they realize fully you've arrived by sea." But Okinawa almost made him eat his words. The Half Safe upset the gum-chewing rhythm of that Americanized base. "We were in the seamen's club before someone noticed I wasn't a jet pilot." Then a security officer accidentally found them. "Say, you guys just arrived? I don't want to act suspicious, but I got to ask you questions."

Fare to Australia. Unfortunately the Half Safe's timetable is off. Carlin and Hanley arrived in Japan too late to try a Pacific crossing this year. Hanley intends to spend the winter working as a draftsman; Carlin will try for a job as a mechanic and English teacher. In the spring they will head out. With the end of the long trip in sight, Ben Carlin, 44, admits he would never try it again. But he knows why he did it this once:

"It's pure sport. People don't recognize sport unless it comes with a standard label. Some people tickle minnows; others have jeeps. Why do we do it? Every Saturday you have thousands of guys kicking themselves up a football field. In the end they're covered with mud or in a hospital. Nobody asks them why they do it. Barring other income, I have enough now so that then I get back to Montreal I'll have just enough for fare home to Australia. At the end, a football player has enough to cart himself and his bruises home and pay for the laundry. They're going to be out again next Saturday. But after Montreal, my playing days will be over.''

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.