After he was married in Australia in 1945, John Caldwell went to work on a merchant ship and ended up in the United States in 1946. As a result of the aftermath of the war, there were not many ships going in the direction of Australia where he could sign on, and he was homesick for his brand new wife. In desperation, he decided to buy a sailboat and sail home. This 8.80 m boat, the "Pagan", once served as a supply boat for lighthouses along the Baltic Sea coast. The boat probably had more sailing experience than its skipper because he himself had none. Starting from the east coast of the United States, he learned to use his boat at sea for the first few weeks, making little progress and sometimes even sailing back. After experiencing sometimes hilarious situations, he finally got his boat more or less under control and sailed in the right direction. As he describes in his later published book, he was confronted with just about all existing sea creatures, with the exception of sea dragons, and even fought with a shark, so the described adventures are best taken with a grain of salt. What was more than real was the hurricane storm in which he ended up. His boat was badly damaged and dismasted and for fear of sinking, John Caldwell, to make his boat lighter, threw everything he thought he could miss overboard ... even most of his food ! This broke him sour. He was able to equip his boat with an emergency gear and tried to reach one of the South Sea islands. Exhausted by hunger, he ate everything that seemed as edible to him as toothpaste, bought cosmetics as a gift for his wife, motor oil, and even eaten a trapped seagull with skin and feathers. Finally, totally exhausted, he suffered shipwreck on the island of Tuyutha in Fiji. The 75 kg man on his departure weighed barely 40 kg. The finish is worthy of a Hollywood movie: after being spoiled by the locals for three weeks, he was finally able to go to Sydney and his wife with a cargo ship. A year later, John Caldwell published a book entitled "The Pacific Against Love" (in English, "The Desperate Journey"), this book did not skimp on the dramatic effect, it was translated into twelve languages, it became a classic in the American fun literature and Caldwell made tons of it. But what is truth in this book? Let's say a little more than half. Image size: 260 x 360 mm