People crossed the Atlantic before they knew they could cross the Atlantic, in boats that were not as sophisticated as what was made just a couple of hundred years later.

It would be nothing for someone to build a boat that could cross the ocean and then cross the ocean on it. It's not rocket science to build a boat, they were being built for thousands of years without power tools or computers, a recovering society or group of people motivated enough could accomplish this. It's not difficult to locate the North Star and keep it off the Starboard Bow (or would that be Port?) and eventually, they would end up on the East Coast of NA.

That's exactly my point. Tenpenny may have thought the USA would be better off than his homeland and it may be but he couldn't have known that until he actually got there barring the existence of regular trans-Atlantic travel. But Emil Pagliarulo seemed to think that Tenpenny migrating to the USA means that Europe is definitely more screwed up as if Tenpenny had a clear picture of the state of both continents:

"Allistair Tenpenny came to the Capital Wasteland from Great Britain to seek his fortune, so that alone tells you that the U.K. was also hit in the war. And if he came to U.S. to succeed, that says a lot about how screwed up Europe must be."

It doesn't say that at all unless Tenpenny knew beforehand what the state of the USA was like. Otherwise he was just gambling unless we're also assuming he could cross and recross the Atlantic on a whim if it turned out he didn't want to stay. It's like the Brotherhood knowing about the Super Mutants in D.C. How?

Or rather, if he was so desperate to leave the United Kingdom that he sailed across the Atlantic to somewhere where he had no idea what to expect then that's indicative of the desperate situation in Europe; frankly this was always my interpretation and I had assumed the normative one.

A good example of people travelling the oceans. But they didn't do it in one go, but yeah some stretches were impressive. Just like the Vikings going from Ireland to Iceland to Greenland to Newfoundland. It is possible. But for one man to do it alone isn't likely.

I would wonder if anyone in the UK would know how to use the stars and such to travel. Then again they could just use GPS, cause its still around after 200 years.

But as already mentioned by now. It isn't really how it was done, but why it was done.

I'm going to go with Boats, there are plenty in use around the uk from fishing trawlers to cruise ships, no way they all got destroyed, nor do i doubt the enclave disabled them like they did on the west coast.

and in the rare case they where there are pently of sea worthily ships in Uk museums and it's also only a short distance to Europe (swimmable/doable in a row boat) where they could also find ships.

What are you saying here? That you believe the Enclave are in the UK? Or are you talking about boats on the East Coast of the United States? Either way the Enclave aren't in the UK and they weren't on the East Coast of America until after Fallout 2.

They only had the one ship and they left that in San Francisco.

Boats on the west coast of American and i'm petty sure it's stated somewhere in fallout 2 that they disabled any sea worthy boats before going to oil rig, if not then the chosen could have just jacked any boat (s)he found.

lol whats so hard to understand?

If cavemen could sale sail the ocean why cant a post-war Englishmen?

They disabled the Oil Rig tanker, which is the only boat capable of going to the Oil Rig and not being blown out of the water by the massive naval guns on the Rig, because its IFF is recognized.

They didn't disable ALL boats.

It's not about the journey, but the motivation. Tenpenny deciding to set sail is basically on par with someone deciding to go on a world tour right after surviving 9/11 and being rescued from the debris or something. The wasteland as we know it has so many issues just surviving day-to-day, yet Tenpenny basically upped the stakes and said "Let's see you survive THIS, me!!" And thus he set sail with no friggin' idea what was in store, settling in one of the LEAST habitable locations in the U.S. instead of simply continuing on further just a bit more to find a nicer area. He crosses the damned Atlantic then says "nah, traveling to Kentucky would be too much of a hassle/too difficult." Really? And to top it all off, he's shown to be wealthy as hell. Ok, so you can't use your wealth to travel further? And how did you make your wealth? Wealth implies work and progress, and yet it's implied the UK is still a hell-hole (and that's why he left) and D.C. is clearly a hellhole too.

People like Colombus traveled BECAUSE they wanted to find land for their nation, but Tenpenny obviously doesn't give a crap about his nation. People like Colombus traveled because they had a passion for discovering the unknown and thus continued traveling their whole lives, but Tenpenny does an epic journey once and then settles down in the most outrageous cess pool of a town he can find.

It makes no sense, plain and simple.

It does if Europe is so bad and war-torn that the CW is better by comparison, which is exactly what Bethesda said was the case.

I'd like to see your source beyond 'I saw it somewhere'.

http://www.1up.com/features/fallout-3-afterthoughts

ehh, that's a poor backer though, from the developers I mean. It could have been he just chased a pipe dream of the US being more intact or a paradise or something. I wish they had actually fleshed out Tenpenny. He had so much potential as insight.

Yeah it's terrible, I always assumed that he was fleeing from something terrible though (and I believe that was Emil's intention); it was a terribly wasted opportunity, seems pointless to include him as a foreigner if your not going to actually make anything of it. But considering that's the same interview which talks about including companions at the cost of the ending was worth it because game-play trumps story so I never expected much.

Or alternatively, the UK was so bad that he really didn't give a [censored] whether or not the U.S. was actually better. He just wanted out (i.e. "anywhere has got to be better than here.") So he took a chance and came to the U.S.

He seems to have done well for himself in the form of Tenpenny Tower, so I guess it was a worthwhile venture. Poor use of an individual who could have given insight on another country though.

I've never agreed with that interpretation because Pagliarulo refers to the US specifically rather than just talking about how the terrible conditions in Europe prompted Tenpenny's departure. He seems to be saying if he came to a place as bad as the Capital Wasteland think how disastrous Europe must be for a guy to migrate here. Given Bethesda's similar disregard of distance given the state of the world when it came to the Brotherhood hearing about mutants in D.C. I'd always assumed the same mindset was at work here.

It's a possibility I should probably consider though.

Or maybe Tenpenny is just insane.

Again, no it does not, because it's STILL implying Tenpenny is willing to cross the friggin' Atlantic, but suddenly going further than D.C. is asking too much. He's in the worst city in the entire post-apocalyptic US, but instead of moving on to a better one, he stays there.

If I live in an impoverished nation and then I win the lotto there or something and have a chance to leave the country entirely, I don't upgrade myself from Angola to Kenya or the like; I'm gonna go full-stop and likely go to a 1st world country. What Tenpenny is doing is basically going from a (presumed) 3rd world country and then stopping in a 2nd world one, even though a 1st world (by wasteland standards) town is probably not too far away; he's ALREADY crossed the atlantic, so anything further shouldn't be a big deal. He's willing to cross a friggin' ocean to upgrade himself from "****hole" to "cess pool," but going a few extra miles to upgrade from "cess pool" to "habitable?" Out of the question!

How about he came as part of a group and the others died ( ship wreck or once they hit landfall) he as very few combat skills knows little to nothing about US geography so dose the best he can.
My other idea is he was sent by his government to make contact with America ( that's why he went to D.C.) saw no government and stupid locals so he set himself up to make abit of cash and forget the U.K.

How hard is it to leave DC? It's not like he crossed the alantic or anything.
Also, what goverment? Why would any post war goverment in a [censored]hole send someone across an ocean? Why did he leave if there was civilisation where he was? He clearly does not have high standards.

Well he didn't and he's rich and has a mercenary army - so clearly he didn't need to. D.C. isn't even that bad. Or maybe he didn't land anywhere near D.C. and made his way there; given that there's literally zero information on his life we have no idea; don't know how you are with geography but Washington D.C. is by no means the closet place in the USA to the United Kingdom. He could have been in Canada, New England or anywhere.


Trade, conquer, establish contact, try and figure out the state of the world...

Pure falsehood, many consider the Pitt worse then D.C., and Point Lookout would also probably be worse then D.C., as D.C. isn't as radiation and mutation heavy as the Pitt, and D.C. at least has some civilization unlike Point Lookout.

D.C. is in no way "the worst city in the post war US", by any means, except by the mental construct you made for yourself that claims it is.

Maybe he didn't come from the UK at all, and is just some crazy guy from Albany who likes to imitate a poorly done English accent.

Funny that the one easily recognizable English actor plays the American President and they got some random American to voice the only english character in the game.

Not that I'm complaining.

I am !