Intrepid Canadian Joshua Slocum was first man to sail solo around the world

WHEN a small sloop made its way into Newport Harbour, Rhode Island, in 1898 it had to negotiate mines and a warship, but skipper Joshua Slocum and his boat Spray passed through into legend, as they completed the first solo circumnavigation of the globe 120 years ago today.

Yachtsman Captain Joshua Slocum was the first man to sail solo round world in 1890s. Picture: Courtesy New Bedford Whaling Museum.

IT was in the early hours of the morning that the sloop cautiously negotiated the mines and warship at the entry to Newport Harbour, Rhode Island. There was always the possibility a nervous crewman might opened fire on the vessel, especially now that the US was at war with Spain. Fortunately, one of the sailors recognised Joshua Slocum’s famous vessel the Spray and shouted: “Spray, ahoy!”

Slocum headed for shore where “at 1am on June 27, 1898, he cast anchor, after the cruise of more than 46,000 miles round the world” completing the world’s first solo circumnavigation,
120 years ago today.

Sailing solo around the world is still tough, but Slocum did it without any modern navigational aids, relying mostly on charts, the stars, a tin clock and his wits. He prevailed against storms, pirates, and even an attempt to put him in prison in Australia. It was the grit and determination he had shown throughout his life — most of which was spent on the ocean — that saw him through.

From a young age Slocum believed he was destined for the sea. Born in Nova Scotia on February 20, 1844, he was the fifth of 11 children of John and Sarah. While his father was a farmer and shoemaker, Slocum said “on both sides my family were sailors; and if any Slocum should be found not seafaring, he will show at least an inclination to whittle models of boats and contemplate voyages”.

Joshua Slocum was the first man to sail around the world solo. Picture: Century Magazine, September 1899.

At age eight he was “afloat along with other boys on the bay” and at 14 he ran away to sea, where his first job was in the galley. The crew didn’t think much of his cooking; he was “chucked out” and returned home. At 16 he shipped out as an ordinary seaman, worked his way up to become a second mate at 18 and, in 1869, had his first command.

While in Sydney in 1871, he met and married American girl Virginia Walker, whose family had settled here. She travelled everywhere with Slocum, giving birth to three children and defending him when mutineers took over his ship in 1882. Virginia died in 1884 while they were in South America.

He married his cousin Hettie Elliott in 1886, who was with him when he was shipwrecked and stranded in Brazil in 1887 and built his own boat the Liberdade (named in honour of the slaves who gained their liberty on the day it was launched in 1888) to make his way home to New York. He would later publish a book about the voyage.

Captain Joshua Slocum's yacht Spray, in Newcastle Harbour, NSW, 1896. Picture: Cultural Collections at the University of Newcastle.

The "Spray" from a photograph taken in Australian waters. From Joshua Slocum's 1899 book Sailing Alone Around the World.

In 1892 an old acquaintance offered to give him a ship that “wants some repairs”. It turned out to be an old oyster dredger from about 1800, named the Spray, rotting in a field in Fairhaven, Boston. In 1893 after returning from his disastrous voyage aboard the US warship Destroyer, which became the subject of a book, he started rebuilding the Spray, working part-time fitting out whaling vessels to complete the project. Over the course of 13 months, he created a sturdy new sloop “fit to smash ice”.

Such was his confidence that in April 1895 he set out from Boston on a solo voyage around the world. After visiting childhood haunts in Nova Scotia he headed across the Atlantic to the Azores and Gibraltar. Chased by pirates, he decided against going through the Mediterranean and the Suez Canal, instead sailing to South America, landing in Brazil in October.

Setting out from Rio de Janeiro in late November, he ran into rough weather in early December and made the near fatal decision to go closer in to shore, running the Spray aground. He nearly drowned when his lifeboat capsized while he was trying to tow the Spray back out to sea and he “suddenly remembered that I could not swim”. Making it ashore Slocum had to rescue his sloop from a local who tried to tow it away behind his horse.

Spray on Sydney Harbour in 1896. Courtesy: New Bedford Whaling Museum

Joshua Slocum in an undated picture. Courtesy: New Bedford Whaling Museum

He rounded Cape Horn in March 1896 and survived encounters with whales, sharks and coral reefs on his long journey across the Pacific, visiting several islands including Samoa, Fiji and Tonga before arriving in Newcastle, Australia, in October and making his way to Sydney.

In Sydney he was summoned to court to answer accusations of cruelty by Sydney resident Henry Slater, who had been under Slocum’s command more than a decade before. But people soon realised there was no substance to the accusation and Slater was forced to withdraw his lawsuit.

Slocum was free to continue his journey, sailing up the east coast through Indonesia, across the Indian Ocean, around the Cape of Good Hope, across the South Atlantic, the West Indies, finally arriving back at Newport in June 1898. His memoir of the trip, Sailing Alone Around The World, was published in 1900 and became a bestseller.

He bought a farm but still sailed the Spray on occasion. On a voyage to the West Indies in 1909 he and the Spray disappeared.