Customer Reviews

Sailing Alone Around the World

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Joshua Slocum was the first person to sail around the world. In this book he tells about his voyage. Joshua Slocums story is very entertaining to read. He writes about the practical and technical challenges of long distance sailing in the 19th century and about his encounters with the peoples and tribes on his route. The writing style is short and factual, but that almost makes the impression even stronger given that more often than not Joshua Slocum had to face death and only escaped with the narrowest of margins. They don't make'em like that any more... I highly recommend this book. it's a great read!

Joshua Slocum was the first person to sail single-handed around the world. Unlike today's solo around the world sailors Slocum was not a yachtsman, but had been variously skipper and owner-skipper of large sailing trading ships that plied the oceans of the world. His voyages included many across the Atlantic Ocean and several to the Pacific, including trading ventures to China, Japan and the Pacific Islands. Slocum was also different to modern day around the world sailors in that he made his around the world voyage near the end of his sailing career, at the age of fifty five. Slocum was declared dead on 14 November 1909 at the age of 65. This was the date he set sail on his final voyage. His course was into an Atlantic gale, and neither he nor his boat Spray was seen or heard of later.

Slocum's father was a farmer in the maritime province of Nova Scotia which was one of the leading sailing and ship-building centres of the world in the latter part of the nineteenth century. Slocum was one of eleven children, was born on the Bay of Fundy, spent only two years in school and gained all his sailing and boat building skills on the job. When he was twenty-five Slocum was offered command of an American coasting schooner. His next command took him the to Australia where he met and married Virginia Walker of Strawberry Hill, Sydney. Later, Slocum would spend considerable time cruising the coast of Australia from Tasmania to the Torres Strait during his around the world voyage.

As the nineteenth century drew to a close steam ships began to eat into the fishing and coastal and international trading business previously the sole dominion of sailing ships. In 1887 Slocum's ship the Aquidneck was stranded on a sand bar off the coast of Brazil and was raked by heavy seas for three days which wrecked the ship. Slocum managed to save his ship-building tools and some material from the wreck. In eighteen months, using timber felled by him and sails sewn by his (second) wife Hettie, Slocum built a 35-foot sailing canoe which he named the Liberdade, as the boat was launched on the day Brazilian slaves were freed. He sailed the Liberdade 5,500 miles in fifty-three days back to Washington DC.

Slocum's boat the Spray, which he used for his around the world voyage had previously been an oysterman on Chesapeake Bay, and was completely rebuilt by Slocum. Although in keeping with tradition the name of the boat was preserved, the boat was deliberately rebuilt with different characteristics by Slocum. For example, he increased the freeboard particularly at the bow and stern in preparation for his ocean-going venture. The Spray was thirty-six feet nine inches long, had a beam of fourteen feet and a draft of four feet two inches, and weighed nine tons. She had a full-length wooden keel which was about one foot deep at the bow and about three feet deep at the stern. Slocum tells of the Spray's ability to sail a constant course with the wheel lashed when about two points off the wind for days on end.

During his around the world voyage he was introduced to many dignitaries in many countries. In South Africa Slocum made the mistake of telling the President of the Transvaal Paul Kruger that he was sailing "around" the world. Kruger corrected him saying that he meant sailing "on" the world, because Kruger believed the world was flat.

The book is fascinating to read and has appeal for anyone interested in the history of sailing and of life at the turn on the nineteenth century.

Unless you're bringing this book on your own around the world race, and are going to great pains to reduce weight and size of everything, like cutting your toothbrush in half, I suggest you not get this small edition. The book is identical to the 'normal' size book except shrunk. Tiny print, very thin paper etc. Turns out it's the 'travel edition'. Amazon doesnt tell you this. I found out the hard way. Despite the eyestrain and headaches I still couldn't put the book down. A great read.

My feeling, upon finishing this book, was that I wish I'd had the opportunity to meet this remarkable man. What a great story of adventure as Slocum sets out in the Spray to sail solo around the world. He seems to have such a wonderful attitude about the whole thing, never really taking anything too seriously, but just enjoying the whole epic. It is incredible that this was done way back in 1895, long before the sophisticated navigational aides sailors and yachtsmen have available today. Yet, he seems to almost casually find his way around the world, meeting interesting people, avoiding mishaps and just generally having a great time. His writing is simple and a joy to read. It's a wonderful story for all ages and certainly not surprising that it has been so popular over the years.

Order carefully. I purchased this book to replace the 1978 edition that I lost. I didn't see the fine print on the web page and was shocked and amused when I received my new miniature edition... This book is 3" x 4". Order the '78 edition unless you have a good magnifying glass. By the way, the book itself is great.

Let me say that I've never been on a sailing vessel of any type. I've never even been on the ocean. But I found this book quite interesting and entertaining. Joshua Slocum's narrative style makes it almost impossible not to read it without imagining a bit of a sailor's accent. His kind heart and happy disposition make me wish I could have met him.
A great read!

Slocom's feat set the standard as the ultimate sailing adventure - a solo around the world voyage. Even though the book is over a century old, it's still an engaging tale. Some of the prose is beginning to show it's age, and if you're not a sailor, you'll need to get past some of the seafaring jargon. But once you get past all that, you'll quickly find yourself absorbed by Slocom's yarn. From the Spray's humble beginnings as the hulking remains of a sloop "built in the year 1" to Spanish ghosts at the helm to fending off "savages" with tacks in Tierra del Fuego to Pacific island royalty and colonial governors and finally to the end of his journey, Slocum never fails to entertain, and to impress. Sailing Alone Around the World is a great read, and the adventure it describes is an amazing testament to courage, perseverance, and the human spirit of exploration.

Joshua Slocum was a very complex man-and not a plaster saint by any account; but he wrote a book as sublime and as soul-satisfying as anyone could wish for. This is a book for a warm fire and a glass of rum, or a cabin on a sailboat. The places he sees and the people he meets are extraordinary; and vividly painted. But they pale when he describes Spray and the sea. You can hear the love and longing in his voice when he describes them. This is the last of a breed, trying to keep his heart alive after wrenching losses, at the end of his rope, and finding a way to continue on and be fulfilled. Excellent reading, it will stick with you for years.

Quite simply, a perfect recounting of one man's sailing journey around the world in a time when you could do that sort of thing without a corporate sponsor. Men like Joshua Slocum -- who can perform great feats of daring and courage with complete humility -- don't exist anymore. No writer, Slocum's simple, straight-forward prose is a relief to anyone looking for a break from self-important fiction, wordy biographies and over-complicated takes on our over-complicated world.

I first read Slocum's account ... while riding ... on a ferryboat. My experience with boating is basically limited to... that ferry ride,... I certainly cannot review "Alone" on any sort of technical level. I just know that it's the ideal escape fantasy. Here Slocum travels the world on his own terms, emphasizing all the pleasures of reading on an empty sea by day, while making the difficult parts (the storms, the pirates) seem like amusing diversions.

The leaden 19th century prose is probably the biggest obstacle to enjoying the book. A narrative of the same journey written today would be far more action-oriented. However, the reader can fill in the parts that Slocum makes seem harmless -- the illnesses, the fear of sudden death, the near madness after 70 days alone on the Pacific -- for a truer taste of just how harrowing the voyage must really have been. And then there's always the pleasure of dining with island governors, and the hobnobbing with celebrity (Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson has a large role), and unintentional amusement as Slocum describes, and bypasses, the island where a recent series of "Survivor" was filmed.

When the nautical urge strikes me, this is the book I read.