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Percy Fawcett

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Explorer

The Resume

    (August 18, 1867-circa June 1925)
    Born in Torquay, England, United Kingdom
    Surveyor and explorer
    Participated in eight expeditions in South America (1906-25)
    Disappeared, with his son Jack and Jack’s friend Raleigh Rimmel, during his eighth expedition to find a ‘lost city of Z’ in the Mato Grosso region of Brazil
    Last communication was a letter to his wife dated May 29, 1925

Why he might be annoying:

    His claim to have shot a 62-foot long anaconda was ridiculed. (The largest anaconda accurately measured was less than 20 feet long.)
    During the first surveying expedition he organized, he brought far too few supplies, resulting in five porters in his party starving to death (1908).
    He claimed Z was an outpost of Atlantis inhabited by white-skinned, blue-eyed people.
    He wrote, ‘There are three kinds of Indians: The first are docile and miserable people, easily tamed; the second, dangerous, repulsive cannibals very rarely seen; the third, a robust and fair people, who must have a civilized [i.e. European or Atlantean] origin.’
    The Kalapalo Indians claimed that he ignored their warnings about hostile tribes along his proposed trail and smoke from his camp fires ended five days after he left them. (Although that may have been a cover story; the Kalapalo may have killed Fawcett’s party for mooching food and supplies then failing to reciprocate with gifts of their own.)
    John Hemming, an expert on the indigenous peoples of the Amazon, commented, ‘Calling Fawcett one of our greatest explorers is like calling Eddie the Eagle one of our greatest sportsmen.’

Why he might not be annoying:

    He volunteered for duty in World War I despite his advanced age, was put in charge of an artillery brigade, and received the Distinguished Service Order.
    He usually maintained peaceful relations with native tribes.
    When his party was fired on by Guarayo Indians while canoeing down the Heath River, he responded by having his group sing popular songs like ‘Swanee’ and ‘A Bicycle Built for Two’ until the perplexed natives lowered their weapons (1910).
    Before his last expedition, he said that if he did not return, no rescue attempt should be made because it was too dangerous.
    His reports of his explorations of the Amazon basin inspired Arthur Conan Doyle’s ‘The Lost World.’

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 7 Votes: 71.43% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 5 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 10 Votes: 50.0% Annoying