Is Tim Severin the Greatest Living Explorer?

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Outside Magazine June 2004

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The Hard Way
Captain Retro (Cont.)

ALTHOUGH HE HAS HAD more than 200 teammates over the course of 15 expeditions, Severin has never lost a single man—perhaps the truest testament to his leadership.

"Severin has a deep sense of responsibility for his crew members," Joe Beynon told me from his home in Switzerland. The coordinator for health and detention at the International Committee of the Red Cross, in Geneva, Beynon, 39, crewed on and photographed Severin's 1993 China Voyage, a test of whether the Chinese could have crossed the Pacific 2,000 years ago in a bamboo raft. Three years later, he rejoined Severin for the 1996 Spice Islands trip, which retraced the route of Alfred Russel Wallace, a 19th-century naturalist who recognized the possibility of natural selection before Darwin.

"Tim's very up-front about the risks and wants to bring people back safe and well," Beynon continued. "It's never a question of people dying. He sails original ships, minimizes the risk, and you all go home safely. Tim's very meticulous at planning, very workmanlike, and leaves nothing to chance."

Thinking of all the trips I've been on where conflict has blown the team—and sometimes the expedition—completely apart, I ask Severin how many people have dropped out of his projects.

"Two, maybe three; all the others were really first-rate," he says cheerfully. "People seem to rise to the occasion—they do more than cope; they learn, they make a great contribution. I'm a big believer that almost anyone can handle a remote journey."

So what is the most valuable characteristic of a good teammate? Bravery, stamina, technical skill?

Severin grins. "I would say being laid-back, easygoing."

"With Tim, there's no rush, no desperation," said Murdo McDonald, 35, a geography teacher from the Outer Hebrides who accompanied Severin on his most recent project, a search for the sources of the fictional character Robinson Crusoe. "Tim takes time to understand a culture. He doesn't have a predefined idea of where the end will be or what he'll find. He goes slowly, conscientiously, and lets things unfold.

"It's all about the myths and legends for Tim. If nobody in the world knew about his projects, but he could still do them—why, he'd still be happy."

Most telling of all, both Beynon and McDonald added that if Severin were to call today, they'd both drop everything to go with him.

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