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= Joshua_Slocum =
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Introduction
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Joshua Slocum (February 20, 1844 - on or shortly after November 14,
1909) was the first person to sail single-handedly around the world.
He was a Nova Scotian-born, naturalised American seaman and
adventurer, and a noted writer. In 1900 he wrote a book about his
journey, 'Sailing Alone Around the World', which became an
international best-seller. He disappeared in November 1909 while
aboard his boat, the 'Spray'.
Nova Scotian childhood
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Joshua Slocum was born on February 20, 1844, in Mount Hanley,
Annapolis County, Nova Scotia (officially recorded as Wilmot Station),
a community on the North Mountain within sight of the Bay of Fundy.
The fifth of eleven children of John Slocomb and Sarah Jane Slocombe
'née' Southern, Joshua descended, on his father's side, from a Quaker
known as "John the Exile", who left the United States shortly after
1780 because of his opposition to the American War for Independence.
As part of the Loyalist migration to Nova Scotia, the Slocombes were
granted 500 acre of farmland in Nova Scotia's Annapolis County.
Joshua Slocum was born in the family's farmhouse in Mount Hanley and
learned to read and write at the nearby Mount Hanley School. His
earliest ventures on the water were made on coastal schooners
operating out of the small ports such as Port George and Cottage Cove
near Mount Hanley along the Bay of Fundy.
When Joshua was eight years old, the Slocomb family (Joshua changed
the spelling of his last name later in his life) moved from Mount
Hanley to Brier Island in Digby County, at the mouth of the Bay of
Fundy. Slocum's maternal grandfather was the keeper of the lighthouse
at Southwest Point there. His father, a stern man and strict
disciplinarian, took up making leather boots for the local fishermen,
and Joshua helped in the shop. However, the boy found the scent of
salt air much more alluring than the smell of shoe leather. He yearned
for a life of adventure at sea, away from his demanding father and his
increasingly chaotic life at home among so many brothers and sisters.
He made several attempts to run away from home, finally succeeding, at
age fourteen, by hiring on as a cabin boy and cook on a fishing
schooner, but he soon returned home. In 1860, after the birth of the
eleventh Slocombe child and the subsequent death of his kindly mother,
Joshua, then sixteen, left home for good. He and a friend signed on at
Halifax as ordinary seamen on a merchant ship bound for Dublin,
Ireland.
Early life at sea
======================================================================
From Dublin, he crossed to Liverpool to become an ordinary seaman on
the British merchant ship 'Tangier' (also recorded as 'Tanjore'),
bound for China. During two years as a seaman he rounded Cape Horn
twice, landed at Batavia (now Jakarta) in the Dutch East Indies, and
visited the Maluku Islands, Manila, Hong Kong, Saigon, Singapore, and
San Francisco. While at sea, he studied for the Board of Trade
examination, and, at the age of eighteen, he received his certificate
as a fully qualified Second Mate. Slocum quickly rose through the
ranks to become a Chief Mate on British ships transporting coal and
grain between the British Isles and San Francisco.
In 1865, he settled in San Francisco, became an American citizen, and,
after a period spent salmon fishing and fur trading in the Oregon
Territory of the northwest, he returned to the sea to pilot a schooner
in the coastal trade between San Francisco and Seattle. His first
blue-water command, in 1869, was the barque 'Washington', which he
took across the Pacific, from San Francisco to Australia, and home via
Alaska.
He sailed for thirteen years out of the port of San Francisco,
transporting mixed cargo to China, Australia, the Spice Islands, and
Japan. Between 1869 and 1889 he was the master of eight vessels, the
first four of which (the 'Washington', the 'Constitution', the
'Benjamin Aymar' and the 'Amethyst') he commanded in the employ of
others. Later, there would be four others that he himself owned, in
whole or in part.
Family at sea
======================================================================
On 9 January 1871, Slocum and the 'Constitution' put in at
Sydney.Constitution, American schooner, 362 tons, Slocumb [sic], from
San Francisco, [left on] 3rd November. Passengers - 20 in the
steerage. Laidley, Ireland, and Co., agents. 'Evening News 9 January
1871'
The Constitution, from San Francisco, is a large American schooner of
362 tons. She has made a good passage of sixty-five days, and brings a
cargo of lumber, fish, &c. Captain Slocom [sic] reports having
sailed on the 3rd November ; had light N.E. winds until reaching the
vicinity of Norfolk Island; from thence strong S.W. winds. 'Empire 10
January 1871'
'Constitution' described by the local shipping agent as a clipper
barquentine. 'The Sydney Morning Herald 12 Jan 1871' There he
met, courted, and married Virginia Albertina Walker. They were married
on January 31, 1871 and the couple left Sydney on the 'Constitution'
the following day. Miss Walker, quite coincidentally, was an American
whose New York family had migrated west to California at the time of
the 1849 gold rush and eventually continued on, by ship, to settle in
Australia. She sailed with Slocum, and, over the next thirteen years,
the couple had seven children, all born at sea or foreign ports. Four
children, sons Victor, Benjamin Aymar, and James Garfield, and
daughter Jessie, survived to adulthood.
In Alaska, the 'Washington' was wrecked when she dragged her anchor
during a gale, ran ashore, and broke up. Slocum, however, at
considerable risk to himself, managed to save his wife, the crew, and
much of the cargo, bringing all back to port safely in the ship's open
boats. The owners of the shipping company that had employed Slocum
were so impressed by this feat of ingenuity and leadership, they gave
him the command of the 'Constitution' which he sailed to Hawaii and
the west coast of Mexico.
His next command was the 'Benjamin Aymar', a merchant vessel in the
South Seas trade. However, the owner, strapped for cash, sold the
vessel out from under Slocum, and he and Virginia found themselves
stranded in the Philippines without a ship.
The ''Pato''
==============
While in the Philippines, in 1874, under a commission from a British
architect, Slocum organized native workers to build a 150-ton steamer
in the shipyard at Subic Bay. In partial payment for the work, he was
given the ninety-ton schooner, 'Pato' (Spanish for "Duck"), the first
ship he could call his own.
Ownership of the 'Pato' afforded Slocum the kind of freedom and
autonomy he had never previously experienced. Hiring a crew, he
contracted to deliver a cargo to Vancouver in British Columbia.
Thereafter, he used the 'Pato' as a general freight carrier along the
west coast of North America and in voyages back and forth between San
Francisco and Hawaii. During this period, Slocum also fulfilled a
long-held ambition to become a writer, and became a temporary
correspondent for the 'San Francisco Bee'.
The Slocums sold the 'Pato' in Honolulu in the spring of 1878.
Returning to San Francisco, they purchased the 'Amethyst.' He worked
this ship until June 23, 1881.
The Slocums next bought a third share in the 'Northern Light 2'. This
large clipper was 233 feet in length, 44 feet beam, 28 feet in the
hold. It was capable of carrying 2000 tons on three decks. Although
Joshua Slocum called this ship "my best command", it was a command
plagued with mutinies and mechanical problems. Under troubling legal
circumstances (caused by his alleged treatment of the chief mutineer)
he sold his share in the 'Northern Light 2' in 1883.
The ''Aquidneck''
===================
The Slocum family continued on their next ship, the 326-ton
'Aquidneck'. In 1884, Slocum's wife Virginia became ill aboard the
'Aquidneck' in Buenos Aires and died. After sailing to Massachusetts,
Slocum left his three youngest children, Benjamin Aymar, Jessie, and
Garfield in the care of his sisters; his oldest son Victor continued
as his first mate.
In 1886, at age 42, Slocum married his 24-year-old cousin, Henrietta
"Hettie" Elliott. The Slocum family, with the exception of Jessie and
Benjamin Aymar, again took to the sea aboard the 'Aquidneck', bound
for Montevideo, Uruguay. Slocum's second wife would find life at sea
much less appealing than his first. A few days into Henrietta's first
voyage, the 'Aquidneck' sailed through a hurricane. By the end of this
first year, the crew had contracted cholera, and they were quarantined
for six months. Later, Slocum was forced to defend his ship from
pirates, one of whom he shot and killed; following which he was tried
and acquitted of murder. Next, the 'Aquidneck' was infected with
smallpox, leading to the death of three of the crew. Disinfecting of
the ship was performed at considerable cost. Shortly afterward, near
the end of 1887, the 'Aquidneck' was wrecked in southern Brazil.
The ''Liberdade''
===================
After being stranded in Brazil with his wife and sons Garfield and
Victor, he started building a boat that could sail them home. He used
local materials, salvaged materials from the 'Aquidneck', and worked
with local workers. The boat was launched on May 13, 1888, the very
day slavery was abolished in Brazil, and therefore the ship was given
the name 'Liberdade', the Portuguese word for freedom.
It was an unusual 35 ft junk-rigged design which he described as "half
Cape Ann dory and half Japanese sampan". He and his family began their
voyage back to the United States, his son Victor (15) being the mate.
After fifty-five days at sea and 5510 miles, the Slocums reached Cape
Roman, South Carolina and continued inland to Washington D.C. for the
winter and finally reaching Boston via New York in 1889. This was the
last time Henrietta sailed with the family. In 1890, Slocum published
his accounts of these adventures in 'Voyage of the Liberdade'.
Voyage of the ''Destroyer''
======================================================================
In the northern winter of 1893-94, Slocum undertook what he described
as, at that time, being "the hardest voyage that I have ever made,
without any exception at all." It involved delivering the
steam-powered torpedo boat 'Destroyer' from the east coast of the
United States to Brazil.
'Destroyer' was a ship 130 ft in length, conceived by the
Swedish-American inventor and mechanical engineer John Ericsson, and
intended for the defence of harbours and coastal waters. Equipped in
the early 1880s, with sloping armour plate and a bow-mounted submarine
gun, it was an evolution of the Monitor warship type of the American
Civil War. 'Destroyer' was intended to fire an early form of torpedo
at an opposing ship from a range of 300 ft, and was a "vessel of war
partially armored to attack bows-on at short range."
Despite the loss of the 'Aquidneck', and the privations of his
family's voyage in the self-built 'Liberdade', Slocum retained a
fondness for Brazil. During 1893, Brazil was faced with a political
crisis in Rio Grande do Sul, and an attempt at civil war that was
intensified by the revolt of the country's navy in September.
Slocum agreed to a request by the Brazilian government to deliver the
'Destroyer' to Pernambuco, Brazil, with financial and vindictive
motives. As Slocum describes, his contract with the commander of
government forces at Pernambuco was, "to go against the rebel fleet,
and sink them all, if we could find them - big and little - for a
handsome sum of gold ..." Slocum also saw the possibility of getting
even with the "arch rebel" Admiral Melo (of whom he writes as
"Mello"): "Confidentially: I was burning to get a rake at Mello and
his 'Aquideban'. He it was, who in that ship expelled my bark, the
'Aquidneck', from Ilha Grande some years ago, under the cowardly
pretext that we might have sickness on board. But that story has been
told. I was burning to let him know and palpably feel that this time I
had in dynamite instead of hay".
Towed by the 'Santuit', Slocum and a small crew aboard the 'Destroyer'
left Sandy Hook, New Jersey, on 7 December 1893. The following day the
ship was already taking on water: "A calamity has overtaken us. The
ship's top seams are opening and one of the new sponsons, the
starboard one, is already waterlogged." Despite all hands pumping and
bailing, by midnight the seas were extinguishing the fires in the
boilers which were kept alight only by throwing on rounds of pork fat
and tables and chairs from the vessel.
With a storm continuing to blow on the 9th, the crew was able to lower
the level of water in the hold and plug some of the holes and leaks.
The bailing out of water, using a large improvised canvas bag,
continued from the 9th to the 13th and succeeded in maintaining the
level of water in the hold below 3 ft. On the 13th they were again hit
by a storm and cross seas and had to bail all night. On the 14th,
heavy seas disabled the rudder. By the afternoon of 15 December, the
'Destroyer' was to the south-west of Puerto Rico, heading for
Martinique, and still weathering storms.
By that time, with the fires in the boilers extinguished, all hands
were bailing for their lives: "The main hull of the 'Destroyer' is
already a foot (30cm) under water, and going on down". The crew had no
other option than to keep bailing and try to keep the ship afloat, as
the vessel "could not be insured for the voyage; nor would any company
insure a life on board". By the morning of the 16th the storm had
abated, allowing the 'Destroyer' to anchor to the south of Puerto
Rico.
Although the ship's best steam pump had been put out of action on 19
December, more favourable seas allowed the crew to reach Martinique,
where repairs were made before again setting sail on 5 January 1894.
On 18 January, the 'Destroyer' arrived at Fernando de Noronha, an
island some 175 mi from the coast of Brazil, before finally reaching
Recife, Pernambuco, on the 20th. Slocum wrote: "My voyage home from
Brazil in the canoe 'Liberdade', with my family for crew and
companions, some years ago, although a much longer voyage was not of
the same irksome nature."
At Pernambuco, the 'Destroyer' joined up with the Brazilian navy and
the crew was again engaged in repairs as the long tow in heavy seaways
had severed rivets at the bow, resulting in leaks. Wet powder led to a
failed test-firing of the submarine gun and the ship was grounded to
remove the projectile. But the strain of the swell led to a further
leak. Following further repairs, the 'Destroyer' made for Bahia with
replenishments of powder for the Brazilian fleet, arriving on 13
February. Once there, however, Admiral Gonçalves of the Brazilian navy
seized the ship. At the Arsenal at Bahia, an apparently incompetent
alternative crew grounded the 'Destroyer' on a rock in the basin. The
vessel was holed and subsequently abandoned.
The ''Spray'': First solo circumnavigation of the earth
======================================================================
Slocum rebuilt the 36 ft gaff rigged sloop oyster boat named 'Spray'
in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, during 1891 and 1892. On June 21, 1892,
he launched the painstakingly rebuilt vessel.
On April 24, 1895, he set sail from Boston, Massachusetts. In his
famous book, 'Sailing Alone Around the World', now considered a
classic of travel literature, he described his departure in the
following manner:
After an extended visit to his boyhood home at Brier Island and
visiting old haunts on the coast of Nova Scotia, Slocum departed North
America at Sambro Island Lighthouse near Halifax, Nova Scotia, on July
3, 1895.
Slocum intended sailing eastward around the world, using the Suez
Canal, but when he got near Gibraltar he realized that sailing through
the southern Mediterranean would be too dangerous for a lone sailor
because piracy was still prevalent there at the time. So he decided to
sail westward, in the southern hemisphere. He headed to Brazil, and
then to the Straits of Magellan. At that point he was unable to start
across the Pacific for forty days because of a storm. Eventually, he
made his way to Australia, sailed north along its east coast, crossed
the Indian Ocean, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and then headed back
to North America.
Slocum navigated without a chronometer, instead relying on the
traditional method of dead reckoning to establish longitude, which
required only a cheap tin clock for approximate time, and used
noon-sun sights for latitude. On one long passage in the Pacific, he
also famously shot a lunar distance observation, decades after those
observations had ceased to be commonly employed, which allowed him to
check his longitude independently. However, Slocum's primary method
for finding longitude was still dead reckoning, and he recorded only
one lunar observation during the entire circumnavigation.
Slocum normally sailed the 'Spray' without touching the helm. Due to
the length of the sail plan relative to the hull, and the long keel,
the 'Spray' was capable of self-steering (unlike faster modern craft),
and he balanced it stably on any course relative to the wind by
adjusting or reefing the sails and by lashing the helm fast. He sailed
2000 mi west across the Indian Ocean without once touching the helm.
More than three years later, on June 27, 1898, he returned to Newport,
Rhode Island, having circumnavigated the world and sailing a distance
of more than 46,000 miles (74,000 km). Slocum's return went almost
unnoticed. The Spanish-American War, which had begun two months
earlier, dominated the headlines but, after the end of major
hostilities, many American newspapers published articles describing
Slocum's adventure.
''Sailing Alone Around the World''
====================================
Original cover 1900.
In 1899, he published his account of the voyage in 'Sailing Alone
Around the World', first serialized in 'The Century Magazine' and then
in several book-length editions. Reviewers received the slightly
anachronistic age-of-sail adventure story enthusiastically. Arthur
Ransome went so far as to declare: "Boys who do not like this book
ought to be drowned at once." In his review, Sir Edwin Arnold wrote,
"I do not hesitate to call it the most extraordinary book ever
published."
Slocum's book deal was an integral part of his journey. His publisher
had provided Slocum with an extensive on-board library, and Slocum
wrote several letters to his editor from distant points around the
globe. His 'Sailing Alone' won him widespread fame in the
English-speaking world, and he was one of eight invited speakers at a
dinner in honor of Mark Twain in December 1900. Slocum hauled the
'Spray' up the Erie Canal to Buffalo, New York, for the Pan-American
Exposition in the summer of 1901, and he was well compensated for
participating in the fair.
Later life
======================================================================
In 1901, Slocum's book revenues and income from public lectures
provided him enough financial security to purchase a small farm in
West Tisbury, on the island of Martha's Vineyard, in Massachusetts.
After a year and a half, he found he could not adapt to a settled life
and he sailed the 'Spray' from port to port in the northeastern US
during the summer and in the West Indies during the winter, lecturing
and selling books wherever he could. Slocum spent little time with his
wife on Martha's Vineyard and preferred life aboard the 'Spray',
usually wintering in the Caribbean. In 1902 he was arrested in
Riverton, New Jersey, on a charge of raping a twelve-year-old girl who
had taken a public tour of the Spray. It emerged that the girl had not
been assaulted but that Slocum may have exposed himself to her, though
he said that he had no memory of the incident. He pleaded no contest
to the reduced charge of indecent exposure and spent over a month in
jail.
Slocum and the 'Spray' visited Sagamore Hill, the estate of US
President Theodore Roosevelt on the north shore of Long Island, New
York. Roosevelt and his family were interested in the tales of
Slocum's solo circumnavigation. The President's young son, Archie,
along with a guardian, spent the next few days sailing with Slocum up
to Newport aboard the 'Spray', which, by then, was a decrepit,
weather-worn vessel. Slocum again met with President Roosevelt in May
1907, this time at the White House in Washington. Supposedly,
Roosevelt said to him, "Captain, our adventures have been a little
different." Slocum answered, "That is true, Mr. President, but I see
you got here first."
By 1909, Slocum's funds were running low; book revenues had tailed
off. He prepared to sell his farm on Martha's Vineyard and began to
make plans for a new adventure in South America. He had hopes of
another book deal.
Disappearance
======================================================================
On November 14, 1909, Slocum set sail in the 'Spray' from Vineyard
Haven, Massachusetts, for the West Indies on one of his usual winter
voyages. He had also expressed interest in starting his next
adventure, exploring the Orinoco, Rio Negro and Amazon Rivers. Slocum
was never heard from again. In July 1910, his wife informed the
newspapers that she believed he was lost at sea.
Despite being an experienced mariner, Slocum never learned to swim and
considered learning to swim to be useless. Many mariners shared this
thought, as swimming would only be useful if land was extremely close
by.
In 1924, Joshua Slocum was declared legally dead.
Legacy
======================================================================
Slocum's achievements have been well publicised and honoured. The name
'Spray' has become a choice for cruising yachts ever since the
publication of Slocum's account of his circumnavigation. Over the
years, many versions of 'Spray' have been built from the plans in
Slocum's book, more or less reconstructing the sloop with various
degrees of success.
Similarly, the French long-distance sailor Bernard Moitessier
christened his 39 ft ketch-rigged boat 'Joshua' in honor of Slocum. It
was this boat that Moitessier sailed from Tahiti to France, and he
also sailed 'Joshua' in the 1968 Sunday Times Golden Globe Race around
the world, making good time, only to abandon the race near the end and
sail on to the Polynesian Islands.
Ferries named in Slocum's honour ('Joshua Slocum' and 'Spray') served
the two Digby Neck runs in Nova Scotia between 1973 and 2004. The
'Joshua Slocum' was featured in the film version of 'Dolores
Claiborne'.
An underwater glideran autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), designed
by the Scripps Institute of Oceanography, was named after Slocum's
ship 'Spray'. It became the first AUV to cross the Gulf Stream, while
operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Another AUV has
been named after Slocum himself: the Slocum Electric Glider, designed
by Douglas Webb of Webb Research (since 2008, Teledyne Webb Research).
In 2009, a Slocum glider, modified by Rutgers University, crossed the
Atlantic in 221 days. The RU27 traveled from Tuckerton, New Jersey, to
Baiona, Pontevedra, Spain - the port where Christopher Columbus landed
on his return from his first voyage to the New World. Like Slocum
himself, the Slocum glider is capable of traveling over thousands of
kilometers. These gliders continue to be used by various research
institutions, including Texas A&M University's Department of
Oceanography and Geochemical and Environmental Research Group (GERG),
to explore the Gulf of Mexico and other bodies of water.
A monument to Slocum exists on Brier Island, Nova Scotia, not far from
his family's boot shop. He is commemorated in museum exhibits at the
New Bedford Whaling Museum in Massachusetts, the Maritime Museum of
the Atlantic in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and the Mount Hanley Schoolhouse
Museum near his birthplace. Several biographies about Slocum are
published.
The Slocum River in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, was named for him, as
was a newly discovered plant in Mauritius while he was there:
"Returning to the 'Spray' by way of the great flower conservatory near
Moka, the proprietor, having only that morning discovered a new and
hardy plant, to my great honor named it 'Slocum'". Slocum himself
discovered an island by accident, and named it 'Alan Erric Island'.
During World War II, a liberty ship was named after Slocum, launched
from South Portland, Maine in December 1944 and scrapped in 1965.
Slocum was inducted into the National Sailing Hall of Fame in 2011.
See also
======================================================================
*Harry Pidgeon, first to solo circumnavigate via the Panama Canal
*List of people who disappeared at sea
External links
======================================================================
*
*[
http://www.joshuaslocumsocietyintl.org/ Joshua Slocum Society]
* [
http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=7071
Biography at the 'Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online']
*
*
*
* HTML e-text of
'[
http://www.allthingsransome.net/literary/slocum2.htm Sailing Alone
Around the World]' with illustrations
* [
http://www.riapress.com/riapress/author.lasso?goto=28 Ebooks of
Sailing Alone Around the World, Voyage of the Liberdade, and Voyage of
the Destroyer, optimized for printing, plus selected Slocum
bibliography]
*
[
https://web.archive.org/web/20070909060506/http://ns1763.ca/digbyco/slocumjmem.html
Joshua Slocum memorial, Westport, Nova Scotia]
*
[
https://navegaresprecioso.wordpress.com/2024/03/18/joshua-slocum-el-gran-navegante-norteamericano-biografia-en-tres-partes-parte-1/
Joshua Slocum, un gran marino (Spanish)]
* [
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXiLzO_pmxQ YouTube video
performance of "Captain Slocum Sailed Around the World" by Howard
Bowe]
* [
https://bookbrainz.org/author/f7a44417-ea7d-45a2-9fc6-b99c3ee56056
Sailing Alone Around the World] at BookBrainz
* [
https://musicbrainz.org/artist/9ea8e70b-822d-4e14-a787-5280e04c8f61
Sailing Alone Around the World] at MusicBrainz
License
=========
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Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Slocum
