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20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An Australian Yachtsman's Review of Slocum's book, August 14, 2001
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.
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