How did a man with his modest educational background, who had spent most of his adult life working at physically demanding jobs, become such a graceful, imaginative, and appealing writer? The answer is that he learned by reading great writers who had preceded him. This is evidently what he did during many long stretches, which answers one of my more pressing questions. An experienced seaman like Joshua Slocum could remain comfortably below decks, out of the elements, and read – or even sleep! – confident that he would sense any significant change in conditions or the behavior of his craft.

Far from land and the major trade routes, with many fathoms of water beneath her keel, a blue water sailor like the Spray could cruise safely and reliably for mile after mile without a hand at the wheel, maintained on her course by the balanced impulses of wind and water on sails and rudder and hull. This wasn’t as reckless as it might seem. Contrary to what one might expect (particularly a non-sailor like myself) the captain spent a great deal of his time at sea reading in his cabin, leaving the Spray to find her own way. Slocum’s account of his voyage is an intriguing blend of introspective, travelogue, and adventure. Twain, as one of the ten people I’d most like to invite for an evening of dinner and conversation. Slocum’s narrative style – direct, unaffected, informative – along with his self-deprecating humor, reminded me of another American writer named Samuel Clemens, and it engenders the same feeling of likability. By the time Captain Slocum had laid the deck of his aptly named schooner, the “Spray”, in Chapter One and launched her into her natural element, I was completely hooked and my admiration grew throughout the book. This remarkable achievement made Slocum the most famous North American sailor of all time.Īs a long-time consumer of recorded books, I’d rate Sailing Alone Around the World as one of the most enjoyable examples of the genre that I’ve ever encountered.

His writing style is fast paced, witty, and exhilarating, an absorbing match to his harrowing adventures - adventures that included being chased by Moorish pirates off Gibraltar escaping a fleet of hostile canoes being submerged by a great wave off the Patagonian coast an encounter with Black Pedro, “the worst murderer in Tierra del Fuego” and foiling a nocturnal attack by savages by strewing carpet tacks on the Spray’s deck.Ĭaptain Joshua Slocum (1844–1909) was the first person to circle the globe alone entirely by sea.

Whether Slocum was more accomplished as a writer or sailor is hard to say. This is Slocum’s own account of his remarkable adventures during the historic voyage of the Spray. A little over three years and forty-six thousand miles later, the proof was complete. Challenged by an expert who said it couldn’t be done, Joshua Slocum, a fearless New England sea captain, set out in April 1895 to prove that a man could sail alone around the world.

Slocum sailing around the world