Thomas Stevens (24 December 1854 – 24 January 1935) was an English-American citizen. He is regarded as the first person to circle the globe by bicycle. He rode a large-wheeled Ordinary, also known as a penny-farthing, from April 1884 to December 1886. He later searched for Henry Morton Stanley in Africa, investigated the claims of Indian ascetics and became manager of the Garrick Theatre in London.

Origins

thumb|left|Drawing of Stevens riding his [[penny-farthing bicycle]]

Stevens, known as Tom, Tom went with a half-brother but without his parents and sisters

Europe

Stevens passed the winter in New York and contributed sketches of his transcontinental trip to Outing, a cycling magazine. It made him a special correspondent and sent him on the steamer City of Chicago to Liverpool. He landed there 10 days later, on 9 April 1885.

It began raining within minutes.

He rode, wearing a white military helmet through England, passing through Berkhamsted, where he had been born. He recorded that roads in England were better than in America. He took the ferry from Newhaven to Dieppe to cross to France and continued through Germany; Austria; Hungary, where he picked up a temporary cycling companion with whom he shared no language; Slavonia; Serbia; Bulgaria; Rumelia; and Turkey.

In Constantinople he rested among people who had heard of America, refitted with spare spokes, tires and other parts and a better pistol (a .38-calibre Smith & Wesson), waited for reports of banditry to subside, and then pedalled off through Anatolia, Armenia, Kurdistan, Iraq and Iran, where he waited out the winter in Teheran as a guest of the Shah, Naser al-Din.

Afghanistan

Having been refused permission to travel through Siberia, he set off on 10 March 1886 through Afghanistan although its borders were closed to foreigners and its guards had a fierce reputation. Upon entering the country, Stevens was arrested. As guards took him to his place of detainment, he entertained them with a demonstration of his bicycle, pedalling far ahead of them until an officer caught up on horse and had him wait for the on-foot soldiers to catch up.

He was kept in a villa where he was fed well and given new boots, soap and biscuits imported from England. A fine horse was kept in the garden aside his quarters that he might enjoy looking at.

Stevens left New York by ship on 5 January 1889. His instructions, he said, were:

: Go to Zanzibar. Investigate the state of affairs there. Let us know the truth about the troubles between the Germans and the Arabs. See what is to be seen of the slave trade. Find out all you can about Stanley and Emin Pasha, and, if necessary or advisable, organise an expedition and penetrate the interior for reliable news of the Emin Pasha Relief expedition. Spare no expense in carrying out the main object of the enterprise, but at the same time don't throw money away recklessly.

Stevens led a six-month expedition, writing for the newspaper of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro and hunting big game. He found Stanley's camp in a race with the rival New York Herald and wrote his memoir, Scouting for Stanley in East Africa. It concluded:

: By the end of February 1890, I was again in New York. I had been gone fourteen months. I had not 'found Stanley,' as Stanley had found Livingstone in 1871; the circumstances were altogether different. I had, however, gratified a pardonable journalistic ambition in being the first correspondent to reach him and to give him news of the world, after his long period of African darkness. That I had done this under most trying conditions, Mr. Stanley fully appreciated; and warmly reciprocated by showing me every courtesy in his power, on the march to the coast, in Zanzibar, and in Egypt.

Stevens then reported from Russia, sailed the rivers of Europe, and investigated miracles claimed by Indian ascetics. His conclusions that "the stories of travelers, from Marco Polo to the latest witness of Indian miracles ... are quite true" were greeted with scepticism and his career faltered.

  • Wild Pea-Fowls in British India, St Nicholas Magazine September 1888
  • Some Asiatic Dogs, St Nicholas Magazine February 1890
  • African River and Lake Systems, Scribner's Magazine, September 1890
  • Through Russia on a Mustang, Cassell Publishing Company, New York, 1891
  • Bicycling, Lippincott's Magazine (V49) May, 1892
  • Across Europe with a Petroleum Launch (From the German Ocean to the Black Sea), Outing Magazine April 1892-September 1892
  • Babes of the Empire, London: William Heinemann, 1902

See also

  • Frank Lenz (cyclist)
  • Kazimierz Nowak

References

  • Genini, Ronald. "California's Circumcyclist Extraordinaire", The Californians, 5, No. 3 (May/June 1987), 22–27. Cited in Journal of Sport History, Vol. 15, No. 1 (Spring, 1988).
  • "Thomas Stevens – 1884" – The Wheelmen
  • "Around the World on a Bicycle. From San Francisco to Teheran" – Via Incognita
  • "ROUND THE WORLD ON A BICYCLE" – Harper's brief, 30 August 1884
  • Maps and Pictures – Bike China Adventures]
  • Discussion on NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday