Basil G. Assan (1860–1918) was the first Romanian circumnavigator and among the fearless trailblazers who paved the way to modernity. His travel lecture, held in front of the members of the Romanian Geographical Society (presided by the monarch Carol I) overviews the essentials of his round-the-world trip and the written report (March 6 (18) 1899) of Assan’s journey retains elements of pretravel accounts interspersed with self-reflexive passages which are more indicative of contemporary travel writings. Assan’s 58 days on the sea and his continuous changing of ships (9), also facilitated his numerous exposés on vessels and presented him with an opportunity to discuss both the discomforts, hardships and pleasures of sailing round the world at the end of the 19th century and the shipboard communities forged by the voyage. Drawing on fresh research in the field of travel writing studies (Nandini Nas and Tim Youngs 2019, Pettinger and Youngs 2020, Carl Thompson 2015, Mircea Anghelescu 2018), I aim to show how the Romanian traveler’s selection of means of transportation during his circumnavigation and the materiality of his journey played a crucial role in grasping and then in unpacking his voyage in his travel report and to the audiences back home.
journey; travel writing; the Far East; the 19th century; Eastern Europe.
„The countries that I visited will wage their future wars on the battlefield of economy.” On Basil G. Assan ’sJourney Round the World (1898)