Sailing Alone Around the World
"The classic of its kind." —Travel World
"One of the most readable books in the whole library of adventure." —Sports Illustrated
"The finest single-handed adventure story yet written." —Seafarer
Challenged by an expert who said it couldn't be done, Joshua Slocum, an indomitable New England sea captain, set out in April of 1895 to prove that a man could sail alone around the world. 46,000 miles and a little over 3 years later, the proof was complete: Captain Slocum had performed the epic "first" single-handedly in a trusty 34-foot sloop called the "Spray." This is Slocum's own account of his remarkable adventures during the historic voyage.
Slocum writes in a fast-paced, exhilarating style. His almost matter-of-fact descriptions of hazardous episodes and his colorful, often witty observations make this book perhaps the most delightful and absorbing adventure tale in history. Across the Atlantic he sailed, but chased by Moorish pirates off Gibraltar, he decided to circle Cape Horn instead and go around the world the other way! He tells of perils on stormy seas and of numerous harrowing events: his escape from a fleet of hostile canoes; an encounter with Black Pedro, "the worst murderer in Tierra del Fuego"; foiling a nocturnal attack by savages by strewing carpet tacks on the "Spray's" deck; submerged by a great wave off the Patagonian coast; the "rain of blood" in Australia; dodging coral reefs in the South Seas. In Samoa, he was visited by Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson; in South Africa, he talked congenially with Stanley of "Stanley and Livingstone" fame, and met "Oom Paul" Kruger, President of the Transvaal republic. Kruger was incensed when one of his officials described Slocum's voyage as "around the world," since his religious beliefs convinced him that the world was flat!
This robust classic of the sea has been widely read ever since its first publication in 1900. It has been reprinted several times and has even been required reading in many schools. This edition (complete with all of the original Thomas Fogarty illustrations) of Captain Slocum's story will prove as enjoyable and thrilling to the present generation of Americans as it was to our fathers and grandfathers.

1007297268
Sailing Alone Around the World
"The classic of its kind." —Travel World
"One of the most readable books in the whole library of adventure." —Sports Illustrated
"The finest single-handed adventure story yet written." —Seafarer
Challenged by an expert who said it couldn't be done, Joshua Slocum, an indomitable New England sea captain, set out in April of 1895 to prove that a man could sail alone around the world. 46,000 miles and a little over 3 years later, the proof was complete: Captain Slocum had performed the epic "first" single-handedly in a trusty 34-foot sloop called the "Spray." This is Slocum's own account of his remarkable adventures during the historic voyage.
Slocum writes in a fast-paced, exhilarating style. His almost matter-of-fact descriptions of hazardous episodes and his colorful, often witty observations make this book perhaps the most delightful and absorbing adventure tale in history. Across the Atlantic he sailed, but chased by Moorish pirates off Gibraltar, he decided to circle Cape Horn instead and go around the world the other way! He tells of perils on stormy seas and of numerous harrowing events: his escape from a fleet of hostile canoes; an encounter with Black Pedro, "the worst murderer in Tierra del Fuego"; foiling a nocturnal attack by savages by strewing carpet tacks on the "Spray's" deck; submerged by a great wave off the Patagonian coast; the "rain of blood" in Australia; dodging coral reefs in the South Seas. In Samoa, he was visited by Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson; in South Africa, he talked congenially with Stanley of "Stanley and Livingstone" fame, and met "Oom Paul" Kruger, President of the Transvaal republic. Kruger was incensed when one of his officials described Slocum's voyage as "around the world," since his religious beliefs convinced him that the world was flat!
This robust classic of the sea has been widely read ever since its first publication in 1900. It has been reprinted several times and has even been required reading in many schools. This edition (complete with all of the original Thomas Fogarty illustrations) of Captain Slocum's story will prove as enjoyable and thrilling to the present generation of Americans as it was to our fathers and grandfathers.

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Sailing Alone Around the World

Sailing Alone Around the World

by Joshua Slocum
Sailing Alone Around the World

Sailing Alone Around the World

by Joshua Slocum

Paperback(Unabridged)

$16.95 
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Overview

"The classic of its kind." —Travel World
"One of the most readable books in the whole library of adventure." —Sports Illustrated
"The finest single-handed adventure story yet written." —Seafarer
Challenged by an expert who said it couldn't be done, Joshua Slocum, an indomitable New England sea captain, set out in April of 1895 to prove that a man could sail alone around the world. 46,000 miles and a little over 3 years later, the proof was complete: Captain Slocum had performed the epic "first" single-handedly in a trusty 34-foot sloop called the "Spray." This is Slocum's own account of his remarkable adventures during the historic voyage.
Slocum writes in a fast-paced, exhilarating style. His almost matter-of-fact descriptions of hazardous episodes and his colorful, often witty observations make this book perhaps the most delightful and absorbing adventure tale in history. Across the Atlantic he sailed, but chased by Moorish pirates off Gibraltar, he decided to circle Cape Horn instead and go around the world the other way! He tells of perils on stormy seas and of numerous harrowing events: his escape from a fleet of hostile canoes; an encounter with Black Pedro, "the worst murderer in Tierra del Fuego"; foiling a nocturnal attack by savages by strewing carpet tacks on the "Spray's" deck; submerged by a great wave off the Patagonian coast; the "rain of blood" in Australia; dodging coral reefs in the South Seas. In Samoa, he was visited by Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson; in South Africa, he talked congenially with Stanley of "Stanley and Livingstone" fame, and met "Oom Paul" Kruger, President of the Transvaal republic. Kruger was incensed when one of his officials described Slocum's voyage as "around the world," since his religious beliefs convinced him that the world was flat!
This robust classic of the sea has been widely read ever since its first publication in 1900. It has been reprinted several times and has even been required reading in many schools. This edition (complete with all of the original Thomas Fogarty illustrations) of Captain Slocum's story will prove as enjoyable and thrilling to the present generation of Americans as it was to our fathers and grandfathers.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780486203263
Publisher: Dover Publications
Publication date: 06/01/1956
Series: Century Seafarers Series
Edition description: Unabridged
Pages: 336
Product dimensions: 5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Joshua Slocum became a legend by being the first person to sail around the globe alone in 1895 in a thirty-seven-foot sloop, Spray, that he rebuilt himself from a derelict oyster sloop. He is possibly the best-known solo sailor ever to have lived.

Read an Excerpt

Joshua Slocum, one of the most famous of American sea captains, really was the first to single-handedly circumnavigate the world. The epitome of Yankee independence, he had risen from a seaman to the captain of his own ship. Marooned in Brazil, he built a "canoe" in which he returned to America (see The Voyage of the Liberdade). At loose ends at fifty-one, he was offered an old oyster boat which he rebuilt into the 37' Spray and in 1895 he took off from Boston for the Straits of Gibraltar.

He is a captivating writer as well; observant, humorous, and evocative:

"For, one day, well off the Patagonian coast, while the sloop was reaching under short sail, a tremendous wave, the culmination, it seemed, of many waves, rolled down upon her in a storm, roaring as it came. I had only a moment to get all sail down and myself up on the peak halliards, out of danger, when I saw the mighty crest towering masthead-high above me. The mountain of water submerged my vessel. She shook in every timber and reeled under the weight of the sea, but rose quickly out of it, and rode grandly over the rollers that followed. It may have been a minute that from my hold in the rigging I could see no part of the Spray's hull. Perhaps it was even less time than that, but it seemed a long while, for under great excitement one lives fast, and in a few seconds one may think a great deal of one's past life."

He met determined pirates in Tierra del Fuego:

"I was not for letting on that I was alone, and so I stepped into the cabin, and, passing through the hold, came out at the fore-scuttle, changing my clothes as I went along. That made two men. Then the piece of bowsprit which I had sawed off at Buenos Aires, and which I had still on board, I arranged forward on the lookout, dressed as a seaman, attaching a line by which I could pull it into motion. That made three of us..."

In Africa he met the explorer Henry Stanley:

"Mr. Stanley was a nautical man once himself, - on the Nyanza, I think, - and of course my desire was to appear in the best light before a man of his experience. He looked me over carefully, and said,

'What an example of patience!'

'Patience is all that is required,' I ventured to reply.

He then asked if my vessel had water-tight compartments. I explained that she was all water-tight and all compartment.

'What if she should strike a rock?' he asked.

'Compartments would not save her if she should hit the rocks lying along her course,' said I; adding, 'she must be kept away from the rocks.'

After a considerable pause Mr. Stanley asked, 'What if a swordfish should pierce her hull with its sword?'

Of course I had thought of that as one of the dangers of the sea, and also of the chance of being struck by lightning. In the case of the swordfish, I ventured to say that 'the first thing would be to secure the sword.'

So this is where Jack London got the idea for watertight compartments! (see Cruise of the Snark, available from The Narrative Press) Discover for yourself why everyone reads this book (called a sailor's Walden) - even if you're not planning a solo sailing trip. And take it with you if you are!

Table of Contents

CHAPTER I
A blue-nose ancestry with Yankee proclivities
Youthful fondness for the sea
Master of the ship Nothern Light
Loss of the Aquidneck
Return home from Brazil in the canoe Liberdade
"The gift of a "Ship"
The rebuilding of the Spray
Conundrums in regard to finance and calking
The launching of the Spray
CHAPTER II
Failure as a fisherman
A voyage around the world projected
From Boston to Gloucester
Fitting out for the Ocean voyage
Half of a dory for a ship's boat
The run from Gloucester to Nova Scotia
A shaking up in home waters
Amoung old friends
CHAPTER III
Good-by to the American coast
Off Sable Island in a fog
In the open sea
The man in the moon takes an interest in the voyage
The first fit of loneliness
The Spray encounters La Vaguisa
A bottle of wine from the Spaniard
A bout of words with the captain of the Java
The steamship Olympia spoken
Arrival at the Azores
CHAPTER IV
Squally weather in the Azores
High living
Delirious from cheese and plums
The pilot of the Pinta
At Gibraltar
Compliments exchanged with the British navy
A picnic on the Morocco shore
CHAPTER V
Sailing from Gibraltar with the assistance of her Majesty's tug
The Spray's course changed from the Suez Canal to Cape Horn
Chased by a Moorish pirate
A Comparison with Columbus
The Canary Islands
The Cape Verde Islands
Sea life
Arrival at Pernambuco
A bill against the Brazilian Government
Preparing for the stormy weather of the cape
CHAPTER VI
Departure from Rio de Janeiro
The Spray ashore on the sands of Uruguay
A narrow escape from shipwreck
The boy who found a sloop
The Spray floated but somewhat damaged
Courtesies from the British consul at Maldonado
A warm greeting at Montevideo
An excursion to Buenos Aires
Shortening the Mast and bowsprit
CHAPTER VII
Weighing anchor at Buenos Aires
An outburst of emotion at the mouth of the Plate
Submerged by a great wave
A stormy entrance to the strait
Captain Samblich's happy gift of a bag of carpet-tacks
Off Cape Froward
Chased by Indians from Fortescue Bay
"A miss-shot for "Black Pedro"
Taking in supplies of wood and water at Three Island Cove
Animal life
CHAPTER VIII
From Cape Pillar to the Pacific
Driven by a tempest toward Cape Horn
Captain Slocum's greatest sea adventure
Reaching the strait again by way of Cockburn Channel
Some savages find the carpet-tacks
Danger from firebrands
A series of fierce williwaws
Again sailing westward
CHAPTER IX
Repairing the Spray's sails
Savages and an obstreperous anchor
A spider flight
An encounter with Black Pedro
A visit to the steamship Colombia
On the defensive against a fleet of canoes
A record of voyages through the strait
A chance cargo of tallow
CHAPTER X
Running to Port Angosto in a snow-storm
A defective sheet-rope places the Spray in peril
The Spray as a target for a Fuegian arrow
The island of Alan Erric
Again in the open Pacific
The run to the island of Juan Fernandez
An absentee king
At Robinson Crusoe's achorage
CHAPTER XI
The islanders of Juan Fernandez entertained with Yankee doughnuts
The beauties of Robinson Crusoe's realm
The mountain monument to Alexander Selkirk
Robinson Crusoe's cave
A stroll with the children of the island
Westward ho! with a friendly gale
A month's free sailing with the Southern Cross and the sun for guides
Sighting the Marquesas
Experience in reckoning
CHAPTER XII
Seventy-two days without a port
Whales and birds
A peep into the Spray's galley
Flying-fish for breakfast
A welcome at Apia
A visit from Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson
At Vailma
Samoan hospitality
Arrested for fast riding
An amusing merry-go-round
Teachers and pupils of Papauta College
At the mercy of sea-nymphs
CHAPTER XIII
Samoan royalty
King Malietoa
Good-by to friends at Vailima
Leaving Fiji to the south
"Arrival at Newcastle, Australia"
The yachts of Sydney
A ducking on the Spray
Commodore Foy presents the sloop with a new suit of sails
On to Melbourne
A shark that proved to be valuable
A change of course
"The "Rain of Blood"
In Tasmania
CHAPTER XIV
A testimonial from a lady
Cruising round Tasmania
The skipper delivers his first lecture on the voyage
Abundant provisions
An inspection of the Spray for safety at Devonport
Again at sydney
Northward bound for Torres Strait
An amateur shipwreck
Friends on the Australian coast
Perils of a coral sea
CHAPTER XV
"Arrival at Port Denison, Queensland"
A lecture
Reminiscences of Captain Cook
Lecturing for charity at Cooktown
A happy escape from a coral reef
"Home Island, Sunday Island, Bird Island"
An American pearl-fisherman
Jubilee at Thursday Island
A new ensign for the Spray
Booby Island
Across the Indian Ocean
Christmas Island
CHAPTER XVI
A call for careful navigation
Three hours' steering in twenty-three days
Arrival at the Kelling Cocos Islands
A curious chapter of social history
A welcome from the children of the islands
Cleaning and painting the Spray on the beach
A Mohammedan blessing for a pot of jam
Keeling as a paradise
A risky adventure in a small boat
Away to Rodiguez
Taken for Antichrist
The govener calms the fears of the people
A lecture
A convent in the hills
CHAPTER XVII
A clean bill of health at Mauritus
Sailing the voyage over again in the opera-house
A newly discovered plant named in honor of the Spray's skipper
A party of young ladies out for a sail
A bivouac on deck
A warm reception at Durban
A friendly cross-examination by Henry M. Stanley
Three wise Boers seek proof of the flatness of the earth
Leaving South Africa
CHAPTER XVIII
"Rounding the "Cape of Storms" in olden time"
A rough Christmas
The Spray ties up for three months' rest at Cape Town
A railway trip to the Transvaal
President Kruger's odd definition of the Spray's voyage
His terse sayings
Distinguished guests on the Spray
Cocoanut fiber as a padlock
Courtesies from the admiral of the Queen's navy
Off for St. Helena
Land in sight
CHAPTER XIX
In the isle of Napoleon's exile
Two lectures
A guest in the ghost-room at Plantation House
An excursion to historic Longwood
"Coffee in the husk, and a goat to shell it"
The Spray's ill luck with animals
A prejudice against small dogs
"A rat, the Boston spider, and the cannibal cricket"
Ascension Island
CHAPTER XX
"In the favoring current off Cape St. Roque,Brazil"
All at sea regarding the Spanish-American war
The light on Trinidad
A charming introduction to Grenada
Talks to friendly auditors
CHAPTER XXI
Clearing for home
In the calm belt
A sea covered with sargasso
The jibstay parts in a gale
Welcomed by a tornado off Fire Island
A change of plan
Arrival at Newport
End of a cruise of over forty-six thousand miles
The Spray again at Fairhaven
APPENDIX
"LINES AND SAIL-PLAN OF THE "SPRAY"
Her pedigree so far as known
The lines of the Spray
Her self-steering qualities
Sail-plan and steering-gear
An unprecedented feat
A final word of cheer to would-be navigators

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