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NAVIGATORS: Robert E. Fulton, Jr.: First motorcyclist to orbit Earth

19 Sep. 2002

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The dinner table talk had been revolving about the architectural nuances of America when the young lady with the toffee-colored hair spoke up. "Are you planning on sailing for home soon? I envy you. I think New York simply devastating."

"Oh, no," I replied. "I'm going around the world on a motorcycle!"

Who was the most startled, the seven persons around me or myself, I really can't say. I recall only that the moment I let that statement slip, I'd done something inexplicably peculiar.

Robert E. Fulton, Jr., One Man Caravan, 1937

In 1932, Robert Edison Fulton, Jr., a young American adventurer in his twenties was about to embark in an incredible journey. The troubled world of the early 1930s was not an obstacle to him, and off he went on his Douglas motorbike from London across Europe to the Middle East and across the dreadful Arabian desert (in nowadays Iraq and Saudi Arabia). He then sailed to Pakistan, wandered throughout an Afghanistan already at war, and crossed the entire Indian subcontinent. He completed the Asian part of his trip by riding through Malaysia, former Indochina, Southern China and Japan. Finally, after having crossed the Pacific ocean on a ship to the American West Coast, Fulton drove across the country to reach New York 18 months after he left London.

Fulton, Jr., in Turkey, 1932*

Robert Fulton (1765-1815)

Robert E. Fulton is a descendant from Robert Fulton, the late 18th and early 19th century inventor of the steamboat and the submarine among other inventions and engineering marvels.

One may remember this ironic episode of History when Fulton, originally supported by Napoleonic France, ended up losing funding from that country for having failed to blow up a British ship with his torpedo prototypes. England then succeeded in bringing Fulton on its side, only to use his submarines and torpedoes against... the French fleet!

Such creativity and curiosity in the Fulton's heritage may have played a crucial role in young Robert's desire to discover the world his own way. A very modern way for his time. Not afraid, like his forefather with his submarines into the dark waters of the oceans, to explore with a machine still in its infancy in the early 1930s, an unknown world: our own planet.

Fulton, Jr., in China, 1933*

Fulton, Jr., with his original Douglas motorcycle, 1996*

*: All pictures are from Robert E. Fulton, Jr.'s book, One Man Caravan, Whitehorse Press edition. To order this book in the United States, contact Whitehorse Press at www.whitehorsepress.com or 1-800-531-1133.

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