Thomas Stevens (cyclist)

Thomas Stevens ( born December 24, 1854 in Great Berkhamstead, † January 24, 1935 in London) was a British author and adventurer who circumnavigated the world as the first man on a bicycle.

Early years

Thomas Stevens grew up in Berkhamstead on the eldest son of the laborer William Stevens. Even as a child he had a penchant for sports and showed great interest in adventure and travel literature. After leaving school he was employed in a grocery store and was responsible for the family's upkeep, as his father had emigrated to the United States; the family should follow. Before it happened, her mother fell ill, and William Stevens returned to Britain.

The circumnavigation

1871 Tom Stevens had saved enough money to emigrate for his part in the United States. Two years later he was followed by his parents and his brothers. Initially, he worked on a farm in Wyoming and Colorado in a mine. Then he moved to San Francisco, where he learned driving on a penny-farthing. He soon embarked on his first journey, from one coast of the U.S. to the other; the track was 4000 miles ( 6400 km ) long. In April 1884, he drove off in San Francisco and came 104 days later in Boston.

About his journey Stevens wrote a series of articles for the magazine Outing, which belonged to the bicycle producers Colonel Albert Pope. Pope agreed to Stevens to finance a trip around the world that was to last three years. In April 1985, Stevens went by ship to Liverpool, which he left in the company of some British cyclists on May 2. Stevens drove his Pope- Wheel of France, on Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire.

On his journey on the bike towards the east, he was always admired by crowds, calling on him to make presentations to the wheel. He took the humor, even when he was away and by constant police interviews sometimes annoyed. In Constantinople, Opel he took a break; in the further journey he was attacked, but was put off the robbers with his gun. The winter is spent in Tehran in order to move on to Russia, which was denied him, so that he, despite warnings a route through Afghanistan and India chose. In Afghanistan's Farah however, he was detained and prevented from proceeding further, so that he will return by train to Constantinople Opel and by ship to India had to travel. There he crossed the country on the Grand Trunk Road to Hong Kong. Again, he suggested caution to the wind and went on to China, which he, however, after a few weeks left for Shanghai because of the hostile attitude of the residents. There he took a steamer to Japan, liked for its friendly people and good roads him. On December 17, 1886 reached Yokohama Stevens, his destination, after a journey of 13,500 miles ( 22,000 km ). He traveled to San Francisco, wrote a two-volume, 1000 pages thick book about his experiences, became famous and traveled throughout the U.S. to readings and lectures.

Travel to Africa, Russia and India

But Stevens sought new challenges: In December 1888, the newspaper New York World spoke to him, he should go on the trail of Henry Morton Stanley in Africa. Stanley had traveled in the direction of the river Congo, there to relieve the governor of the southern province of Sudan Equatoria, the German researcher Emin Pasha, from the hands of the Mahdists Abdallahi ibn Muhammad. This demanded that Queen Victoria to come to Sudan and convert to Islam.

Stevens traveled to Zanzibar and initiated a six-month search expedition by Kenya and Tanzania, which he reported in articles that moved the competition page of the New York World, the New York Herald, also to send a reporter on the search for Stanley, what absurd to a competition led to Stevens finally won. He met Emin Pasha, who was allowed to come with him. The book about his adventures Scouting for Stanley in East Africa was also very successful.

In 1890 sent him to the New York World to Russia, where Stevens an American show group a horse named Texas bought from, and thus 1000 miles ( 1600 kilometers ) through the Russian hinterland rode to the Black Sea. He visited the country house of Leo Tolstoy, interviewed the poet wrote after his return the book Through Russia on a Mustang.

Then bought Thomas Stevens, who had no nautical experience, a ship and sailed rivers in Eastern Europe. A series of articles on these trips appeared in the World. In 1893 he made ​​his last journey to India to get there the secrets of Hindu ascetics on the track. There he met a hermit know who did amazing things, photographed Stevens. Back in the United States, he showed his photos as a slide show and confirmed by the New York Times that the miraculous stories to tell about Indian miracle, " all true" are. The presentations and photos reaped mixed reactions, and there were also no longer reprinted article about it. In addition, Stevens confessed to friends that he was tired of traveling.

Back in England

The following year, Thomas Stevens returned to England and married the widow Frances Barnes. She brought six children into the marriage, including two daughters, Violet and Irene Vanbrugh, the well-known actresses were later. For several years, Stevens was president of the famous Garrick Theatre. During and after the First World War he produced as a volunteer artificial body parts for wounded soldiers. Thomas Stevens died at the age of 80 years to cancer; it is on the East Finchley Cemetery buried.

Publications

• 20,000 miles with a penny-farthing from 1884 to 1886. Edited by Hans -Erhard Lessing. Thienemann: Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-522-60670-1.
• Scouting for Stanley in East Africa. Cassell Publishing Company, New York, 1890
• Through Russia on a Mustang. Cassell Publishing Company, New York, 1891