Boy Who Fell to Shore - the Extraordinary Life and Mysterious disappearance of Thomas Thor Tangvald
by Doane, Charles J.
pub by Larak books, Spokane, WA USA, 2022 - - ISBN 978-1-957607-06-1 - - illustrations black and white photos - 305 pages

Charles Doane has written a complete biography of Thomas Thor Tangvald, son of Peter Tangvald.
    Chapters
    Preface - two questions     p. 1
    1. In his fathers Wake     p. 9
    2. Aftermath                  p. 25
    3. Child of the Sea         p. 41
    4. In New Terrain          p. 63
    5. An Education Consummated     p. 89
    6. Afloat Again                p.117
    7. A Voyage of His Own p. 141
    8. Down the Rabbit Hole p. 167
    9. A Family Man               p. 187
    10. Escape from Babylon p. 219
    11. In a Fake Country     p. 247
    12. A Prince in His Realm p. 273
    Acknowledgements        p. 298
    Image Attributions         p. 301
    about the author              p. 395.

    After in introduction Doan starts in July 1991. with the disasterous shipwreck of Peter Tangvalds boat L Artemis de Pytheas on a reef near the island of Bonaire, a Dutch island, which is just north of Venezuela. Thomas was in a much smaller boat, the Spartan being towed by the Artemis which was under sail. (The Artemis did not have an engine.) Peter Tangvald (father) and his 7 year old sister Carmen died. Thomas managed to make it to shore using a surfboard which he happened to have aboard the Spartan. Thomas was 15 years old.
    Peter had arranged that if anything happened to him that long distance sailors Edward and Claire Allcard who had retired to living in Andorra (that tiny country between Spain and France.) Thomas went to school there through high school. The book backtracks into the circunstances of Thomas birth by his mother Lydia, and Thomas early life while Peter worked at a boat yard in Taiwan. Later they sailed on and Lydia was shot and killed by pirates in the Sulu sea. The book then transitions to events in Andorra.
    Claire managed to get Thomas into University at Leeds in England. Thomas did well enough there. He became good at using computers to do things, including design work. He continued as a student for a few years. He acquired a boat and quit shortly before his final exams. He sailed and lived in SW England for a while, having a serious female friend. Then he sailed for the Carribbean islands. He lived in the Puerto Rico area, (Vieques) married, had children but was comparatively rootless. He chaffed under normal government rules. He had problems with alcohol, but not so much that it totally took over his life.
    Eventually Thomas decided to move to Brazil to set up doing boat designing there. His wife decided not to travel with him as she considered the boat he travled in to be too hazardous for the jounrey. She might join him after he arrived in Brazil.
On 4 March 2914 Thomas Tangvald sailed off toward Brazil and was never hear of again.
    There is a lot of analysis of Thomas way of life and thought process, and also about his disappearance.
    There is considerable detailed information on Thomas life in this book.
    This is an interesting read. It reveals the difficulties of life for a person who has problems fitting in to normal social life after growing up in early life living with few of society's normal constraints, and with the trauma of losing his family in front of his eyes.
~2023-09-02~

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