GLOBETROTTER NELLIE BLY’S ADVICE FOR THE ADVENTURER
Six top tips
By Rosemary J Brown
Trailblazing journalist Nellie Bly circled the world faster than anyone ever had in 1890. She travelled alone — literally with the clothes on her back and a Gladstone bag – to beat the fictional 80-day record of Phileas Fogg. When she won her race around the world in 72 days, it was called “the most remarkable of all feats of circumnavigation ever performed by a human being”.
That this fearless heroine had since faded into oblivion inspired me to revive her as an inspirational role model. My goal was to ‘get her back on the map’ so I set off to re-enact her global voyage 125 years later. Both of our journeys are captured in my book Following Nellie Bly: Her Record-Breaking Race Around the World.
Bly raced through the Victorian era pushing boundaries and defying conventions all the way. I streamed through the digital age, launching the Twitter hashtag #Nelliebly125 and a Following Nellie Bly blog. Bly raced. I didn’t. She covered 21,740 miles in 72 days. I clocked up 22,500 miles in 32 days. Her tenacity and courage led the way for me.
1. Don’t take no for an answer
No one had ever challenged the fictional record set by Phileas Fogg, Jules Verne’s hero in Around the World in 80 Days. When Nellie Bly approached The New York World newspaper editors with a proposal to beat Fogg’s time, they thought it a splendid idea – for a man. In the 1880s it was unheard of for a woman to travel alone; she would require a chaperone, and the steamer trunks she’d need would impede her progress. “Very well,” Bly retorted. “Start the man, and I’ll start the same day for another newspaper and beat him.” They knew she would. In the end, Nellie secured a promise that if anyone was to travel, it would be her.
2. Be ready to go at a moment’s notice
Although the assignment had been promised to her, Nellie Bly’s idea to race round the globe lay on the editor’s desk for a year. Suddenly on 12 November 1889 she was asked if she could start her journey ‘the day after tomorrow’. “I can start this minute,” Bly said. Seventy-two hours later she was aboard the SS Augusta Victoria on her way around the world. The race had begun.
3. Pack lightly
Bly chose her travel bag with the strict intention of confining her luggage – it measured 16×7 inches. That’s how she came to circumnavigate the globe with the clothes on her back and the few things she could squeeze into her bag. She also wanted to demonstrate that women were capable of travelling without trunks. At least 30 bags the size of Bly’s could fit into a single Saratoga trunk.
Her advice: ‘If one is travelling simply for the sake of travelling, and not for the purpose of impressing one’s fellow passengers, the problem of baggage becomes a very simple one.”
5. Seize opportunities, even if they take you off course.
Bly was only eight days into her race when she received an invitation to visit Jules Verne -author of the novel that inspired her journey. Her itinerary was tighter than a ship’s rigging, but how could she resist a visit with the famous novelist in Amiens, France. It meant sacrificing two nights of sleep, travelling 180 miles off-route, and adding two extra train journeys and 14 hours to her trip.
This spontaneous detour jeopardised Bly’s chances of beating Fogg’s record. But, like almost all of the risks she took, it ended in triumph. “I have travelled many miles out of my way for the privilege of meeting M and Mme Verne,” she wrote, “and I felt that if I had gone around the world for that pleasure, I should not have considered the price too high.” To this day, her visit to the Maison Jules Verne, now a museum, lives on for international tourists in vignettes performed by actors.
6. Keep calm and carry on.
Nellie Bly’s joy at arriving early in Hong Kong dive-bombed into despair when she discovered that she had a competitor named Elizabeth Bisland – and Bisland was ahead by three days. Even worse, Bly would be stranded in Hong Kong for five excruciating days until her delayed liner finally arrived. She mustered up every ounce of inner strength and declared that she was not racing again anyone, but rather against time. “I promised to do the trip in 75 days and I will do it,” she stated. She completed the journey in 72 days; Elizabeth Bisland finished in 76 days. The winner took all. The rest is history.
7. Believe in humanity
Friends and colleagues pleaded with Bly to carry a revolver for protection on her travels. She refused. “I had such a strong belief in the world’s greeting me as I greeted it that I refused to arm myself.” At the end of her record-breaking journey, Nellie Bly felt indebted to ‘people the world over’. “They form a chain around the earth,” she wrote of all the kind people she encountered on her global tour.
Following Nellie Bly: Her Record-Breaking Race Around the World by Rosemary J Brown is available to buy now for £19.99
EVENTS AT STANFORDS
Join us at Stanfords as we welcome Rosemary Brown and Jacki Hill-Murphy and travel back through time to talk about their fascinating new books and the pioneering adventures of the two incredible women who inspired them.
For more details please see the Stanfords events page.
