Honestly, the most impressive thing isn't even the speed. It’s the bag.
When Nellie Bly stepped onto the steamship Augusta Victoria on November 14, 1889, she wasn't carrying a trunk. She didn't have a mountain of Victorian petticoats or a personal maid. She had one single leather gripsack, about the size of a modern carry-on, and a massive amount of sheer, unadulterated nerve.
She was 25. Her boss at the New York World, the legendary Joseph Pulitzer, told her it was impossible. He actually said no one but a man could do it because a woman would need too many protectors and too much luggage. Nellie basically told him: "Fine. Start the man. I’ll start for another paper the same day and beat him."
He blinked. She won. And then, she actually went and did it.
The 21,000-Mile Sprint
People tend to think of Nellie Bly around the world in 72 days as a leisurely Victorian cruise. It wasn't. It was a brutal, seasick-inducing, logistics-heavy scramble across a world that wasn't yet fully connected.
She wasn't just trying to travel; she was trying to beat a fictional ghost. Jules Verne’s Phileas Fogg had done the trip in 80 days in a book. Nellie wanted to prove a real human—specifically a real woman—could do it faster.
She traveled east. New York to London, then a frantic dash to Amiens, France, just to meet Jules Verne himself. The guy was skeptical. He told her if she did it in 79 days, he’d applaud with both hands. He didn't think she’d make it. Most people didn't.
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The Itinerary That Should Have Killed Her
- The Atlantic Crossing: Seven days of brutal seasickness on the Augusta Victoria. She spent a lot of time leaning over the railing, questioning her life choices.
- The European Dash: London to Brindisi, Italy, by train. She barely saw the scenery.
- The Canal and the East: Through the Suez Canal to Egypt, then onto Yemen, Sri Lanka (Ceylon), and Singapore.
- The Monkey Incident: In Singapore, she bought a monkey. Because why not? It traveled with her for the rest of the trip.
- The Pacific Nightmare: A "tempestuous" voyage from Japan to San Francisco that almost ruined the record.
The Secret Race Nobody Told Her About
Here’s the part that gets left out of the elementary school history books: Nellie wasn't the only one running.
The same day she left Hoboken, another journalist named Elizabeth Bisland started heading west. Bisland worked for Cosmopolitan magazine. They wanted to steal Nellie’s thunder.
The crazy part? Nellie didn't even know she was in a race against another woman until she reached Hong Kong. She walked into a steamship office, and the guy there told her she was going to lose.
"Lose? I don't understand," she said.
She was told Bisland had passed through three days earlier. Nellie didn't panic. She just kept moving. Bisland eventually got delayed by a missed ship in the Atlantic and a grueling winter trek across the UK, while Nellie was speeding across the American West on a chartered train provided by Pulitzer.
How She Packed (And Why You’re Doing It Wrong)
If you think packing for a weekend trip is hard, imagine packing for a global circumnavigation in 1889 with zero chance of buying a replacement.
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Her dressmaker, Ghormley, made her a blue broadcloth traveling suit in less than 24 hours. She wore a black-and-white plaid "ulster" coat and a ghillie cap. That was it. No changes of clothes, just a few extra "ruchings" (lace frills) to pin onto her collar so she looked fresh in photos.
Inside that tiny bag:
- Two travel caps and three veils.
- A flask and a drinking cup.
- Writing supplies (ink-stand, pens, pencils).
- A jar of cold cream (which she later called the "bane of her existence" because it took up too much room).
- £200 in English gold sewn into a chamois bag around her neck.
She refused to carry a revolver. She said she had a "strong belief in the world's greeting."
The Finish Line at 72:06:11
When she arrived back in Jersey City on January 25, 1890, the world went absolutely nuts.
Ten thousand people were waiting. Cannons were fired from the Battery in Manhattan. She hadn't just beaten Phileas Fogg; she had smashed the record, finishing in 72 days, 6 hours, and 11 minutes.
She was, for a brief moment, the most famous person on the planet. There were Nellie Bly dolls, board games, and even racehorses named after her.
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Why It Still Matters
We live in a world where you can fly from New York to Singapore in 18 hours. It’s easy to look back at 72 days and think, "So what?"
But Nellie Bly wasn't just moving fast. She was dismantling the idea that women were fragile. She proved that "energy rightly applied can accomplish anything." She didn't have GPS, she didn't speak the languages of the countries she visited, and she was traveling alone in an era where women weren't even allowed to vote.
Actionable Insights from Nellie’s Journey
If you’re a modern traveler or just someone trying to do something "impossible," there are real lessons here:
- Edit Your "Cold Cream": Identify the one thing in your life (or your suitcase) that is taking up 80% of your energy but providing 2% of the value. Get rid of it.
- The One-Bag Rule: Nellie proved that mobility is power. If you can carry your own weight, nobody can slow you down or tell you where you can't go.
- Ignore the "Protectors": People will always tell you that you need more preparation, more money, or a "man" (or a mentor, or a degree) to start. Start anyway.
- Focus on the Next Leg: Nellie didn't obsess over the 21,000 miles. She obsessed over making the next train.
Nellie Bly eventually moved on from travel to become a massive industrialist and a war correspondent in WWI. But she’ll always be remembered for those 72 days when she made the world feel just a little bit smaller and herself feel infinitely bigger.
To truly understand the logistics she faced, you should look into the specific steamship manifests of the SS Oceanic or the Augusta Victoria. Her book, Around the World in Seventy-Two Days, is also in the public domain and remains one of the best travelogues ever written. It's punchy, funny, and surprisingly modern. Read it if you want to see how a real pro handles a crisis at sea.