Loner

The Circumnavigators

The Portuguese Magellan was the first to circumnavigate the world back in 1588.  Magellan himself was killed in the Philippines, but his ship Victoria limped back to port with a crew of 18. Victoria and her crew were the remnant of the fleet of five ships and 270 sailors that had started the trip three years earlier.

The first solo circumnavigation was not completed until over three hundred years later. It also took three years.  On this day in 1895, Joshua Slocum left Boston Harbor with the intention of sailing around the world. He was alone.

The Spray

Slocum's vessel was a 36'  gaff-rigged sloop.  Spray had spent her working life as an oyster boat on Chesapeake Bay. In 1885, she was hauled ashore in Fairhaven, Massachusetts. After seven years of slowly rotting in a meadow, the hulk was given to Slocum by a friend who didn't know what else to do with it. The neighbors were starting to make fun of him.

Working mostly alone, Slocum spent the next thirteen months and $15,000 (in today's dollars) completely rebuilding the Spray. He said the only original part left was the name.

 Slocum, aged 48, was a bit at loose ends when he took on the Spray. He had spent his entire life on sailing ships as deckhand, mate, and master. The age of sail was coming to an end about then and there were few jobs available for sailing captains. 

Slocum had a family up in Nova Scotia, but he and his wife had agreed amicably to go their separate ways, though they remained married. When Slocum was given the Spray, he got it in his mind to fix her up her and sail around the world.

To Sea

After leaving Boston in 1895 Slocum sailed to Nova Scotia and spent a couple of months visiting his old home place. At some point in his career he had become a U.S. citizen, but he said he knew little of his adopted country, having spent most of his life at sea or in foreign lands. 

His plan after crossing the Atlantic, was to cross the Mediterranean to the Suez Canal and on across the Indian and Pacific Oceans and back to the United States.  This route would probably have saved him a year. But the British naval officers in Gibraltar warned Slocum that a small vessel like his would be vulnerable to pirates in the Red Sea. Having unlimited time, he decided to sail back across the Atlantic to Brazil, then south to the Straights of Magellan.

Pursuit

Away from Gibraltar, he headed straight west, but soon noticed he was being followed by a fast sailboat. The Spray was sailing fast, but the other boat had more sail on and was gaining. He realized it was pirates coming to rob him and worse. Then a strong gale hit. He had to reduce sail which slowed him even more. He could see there were about a dozen pirates aboard the approaching boat. Then his boom broke. He attended to that, then went below to get his rifle. When he returned, he saw that the pirate vessel had overturned in the storm and was now far behind. Slocum called down a curse from Allah on them.

Into the Straights

The trip across the Atlantic was a pleasant one. He reached the tip of Brazil and sailed down along the coast to the entrance to the Straights. This area is known for having the worst weather in the world. Between savage Fuegans and wild winds, this was to be the worst part of his voyage. A friendly port official, learning that he was sailing alone, gave him a bag of carpet tacks. When he anchored for the night, he scattered the tacks on the deck before turning in. One night he awoke to howls of pain. He opened the cabin door and fired his gun several times into the sky. When he got on deck, he saw several canoes retreating into the night.

He had a couple of other run-ins with natives and was able to chase them off with rifle shots. He was fortunate that the natives lacked guns themselves. And shoes. Even more dangerous than the natives were the wild winds, the williwaws he called them, that would come rushing down off the mountains and threaten to throw even large steamers onto the rocks.

It was with relief that he left the Straights and headed for Australia. But soon after, hurricane strength winds from the northwest forced him to turn towards Antarctica. When the winds let up a bit, he was able to escape back into the Straights by a different entry point. Now he had to go over the same waterways, even recognizing and chasing off some the same natives he had dealt with earlier. After forty days of struggle, he made it through. If he had done this trip 19 years later, he could have used the Panama Canal.

Across the Pacific

The Spray arrived on Robinson Crusoe’s island two weeks later and in Australia after a three month’s sail. After visits to Sidney and Melbourne, he attempted to sail around the southern tip of Australia, but bad weather forced him to turn around and sail up the west coast and around the north tip instead. Luckily for him, Australia is one of the smaller continents.

The rest of the trip was relatively uneventful. On long passages, Slocum was able to lash the helm, set the sails, and let the Spray sail herself.

Home

Spray returned to Fairhaven on July 3, 1898. Slocum had made an arrangement with a publisher to send reports to newspapers during his voyage. He intended to write a book, but when he arrived back in the U.S. the Spanish-American War had broken out and his arrival went unnoticed. But once the war was over, his book became a best seller (I highly recommend it) and Slocum was able to live off the proceeds for several years. He bought a small farm on Martha’s Vineyard and set up his family there.

But Slocum was no farmer and in the winter he would sail down to the Caribbean “to avoid buying a winter coat.” On a trip south in 1909, the Spray disappeared at sea. He was 65. This was probably the way he expected to go. Slocum was a resourceful mariner. He could fix or jury rig anything that went wrong. And he had indomitable courage. He reminds me of our friend Jerry Solom.