Walking is falling forward. Each step we take is an arrested plunge, a collapse averted, a disaster braked. In this way, to walk becomes an act of faith.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/article/out-of-eden 

On June 6th, 1896 George Harbo and Frank Samuelsen departed from New York's Battery in an 18 foot rowboat destination Europe.  They took the northern route skirting in and out of the shipping lanes.  The same shipping passages that the Titanic would later use and the same areas fished by Gloucester and Nova Scotia fisherman.

The boldness and courage that Thomas Allen and William Sachtleben display in this book is impressive. On June 14, 1890, just one day after they graduated from Washington University in Saint Louis, Missouri, they set out on a record -breaking journey around the world. As they put it, they did it hoping to add practical experience to the book knowledge they had acquired in college.