From his youth, John Fairfax led a life out of a flamboyant adventure novel. At 9, he settled a dispute with a pistol; at 13, inspired by Tarzan, he went to live in the Amazon jungle, surviving there as a trapper. In later yerars, he spent three years as a pirate's apprentice, then became a professional gambler. In 1969, he fulfilled a longtime dream by being the first lone oarsman to traverse the Atlantic Ocean. Two years later, he and a woman he recuited, Sylvia Cook, as his partner, set out to be the first to row across the world's largest ocean, the Pacific. This book recounts that year-long adventure, which nearly cost Fairfax his life at the jaws of a shark. 255 pages, plus two photo sections. Slightly bowed covers, a number of pages bumped at the side edges and a tiny red stain on the top edges. The jacket has slight wear at the spine ends and at the fold corners, plus a clip on the front lower flap. Fairfax died in February 2012. The book is out of print, so it is becoming increasingly scarce and in demand.