A FIGHTING CHANCE

by Capt. John & Sgt. Chay Blyth Ridgway ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 26, 1967

In June 1966 British Paratroopers Ridgway and Blyth left Cape Cod in an open dory, the rowboat used by whalers which has neither mast nor sail, and rowed to Ireland. It took 92 days. Few people denied the folly of this terrible ordeal, excepting the men's wives, fellow officers in their Parachute Regiment, and a few old time Cape Cod whalemen. Why did the two men do it? For the sheer physical challenge and because Ridgway had always had adolescent dreams of conquering some mighty natural phenomenon. Also, they were in competition with two other Britishers doing much the same thing but starting from Virginia. (They were lost at sea, their boat later found capsized.) Once again, as in several recent books about daring crossings, solitude emerges as a deepening philosophical experience. However, piled onto it were several horrors, including Hurricane Alma, sharks, whales, gales and some hallucinatory idee fixes. The last and most insistent was Ridgway's belief that one of them was doomed to die on the rocks of the Irish coast...Tremendously absorbing.

Pub Date: May 26, 1967

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Lippincott

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1967

Categories: NONFICTION