French novelist Jules Verne’s adventure story ‘Around the World in 80 Days’ may have been written in the author’s native language when it was published in 1872, but the novel went on to become one of the most acclaimed and well-read stories. Author. The book tells the story of Phileas Fogg, an Englishman who decides to travel the world in 80 days with his newly appointed French valet as he is challenged by his friends at the Reform Club. Verne’s Fogg may have done it in 80 days but the fictional British adventurer’s record was broken nearly 16 years later by an American journalist. Elizabeth Jane Cochrane, better known as Nellie Bailey, by her pen name did the same journey as Fogg, but Bley took it up as a challenge to do it in less than 8 days than Fogg. Bailey began the journey on her own on November 14, 132 years ago, thus inspiring generations.
Bailey is also known for her new kind of investigative journalism and gained lasting fame for her exposés in which she pretends to be insane to investigate reports of harsh treatment given to women in mental asylums. Apart from her journalism career, she was also an industrialist, inventor and charity worker.
But how did Bailey complete the trip around the world in 72 days? Originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, she began working for the Pittsburgh Dispatch, but tired of the stories of their ‘women’s pages’, Bailey decided to move to New York, but faced rejection from editors who called for fake madness. refused to hire a woman before taking up the challenge of To expose the insane asylum of women seeking permanent jobs in the New York World run by Joseph Pulitzer.
In 1888, he suggested to his editor that he travel around the world to turn the fictional Fogg’s journey into a real one. A year later in 1889, on November 14, and 132 years earlier, Bailey boarded the ship Augusta Victoria, a steamship of the Hamburg America Line. Bailey took some very basic items with her—a coat, a change of underwear, and a small travel bag with essentials. She took some money in American and British currency and left for Hoboken, New Jersey.
Bailey’s en route included passing through England, France, where she also met the author Jules Verne, then Brindisi in Italy, the Suez Canal, Colombo, Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan. She was also able to send short reports of her travels and the submarine cable network and the electric telegraph. She traveled the majority of her journey by steamship and railroad systems. crossing the Pacific,
Bailey encountered bad weather and arrived in San Francisco two days ahead of her schedule, but was helped by the owner of New York World, who hired a private train to bring her back home. Bailey arrived in New Jersey at 3:51 pm on January 25, 1890.
The New York newspaper Cosmopolitan also sent its own reporter, Elizabeth Bisland, to break Bailey’s record, but Bisland arrived 4 days later than the former, who set the world record and although due to more advanced methods of travel. Bailey’s record was soon broken, her achievement still cited as one of her best.
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