Robbed at knifepoint, attacked by wolves - and this Sunderland man still wanted more adventure

Sunderland man Peter Maddison had already had an adventure or two by June 1982.
Peter Maddison who was set for a round-the-world adventure in a raft.Peter Maddison who was set for a round-the-world adventure in a raft.
Peter Maddison who was set for a round-the-world adventure in a raft.

So a round-the-world trip on a 45ft wooden raft seemed like a great way to continue the trend.

After all, he had already been attacked by wolves and robbed at knifepoint in the USA previously.

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The 24-year-old, from High Barnes and a former St Thomas Aquinas schoolboy, was planning to join an adventure called Project Raft.

It was a mission to sail round the world and raise cash for the Royal National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen.

He decided on another challenge after just three weeks back in Sunderland from his previous mission.

His ‘CV’ included visits to places such as Norway where he had hunted reindeer, lived off the land, fished in the fjords, and survived in a log cabin in temperatures which sometimes plummeted below minus 30 degrees.

He also went weeks without seeing another person.

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Peter, who had served an apprenticeship at Sunderland Forge earlier in his career, then went to see as an electrician.

He was also a Royal Marine Reserve but soon spent most of his life in Scandinavia where he stayed for around four years, and spent time working as a cowboy on a ranch in the USA.