Slocum Circumnavigates Alone: First Solo Globe Voyage

Joshua Slocum sailed into Fairhaven, Massachusetts, on June 27, 1898, completing a journey that every experienced mariner of his era considered suicidal. Over the course of three years, two months, and two days, the 54-year-old Nova Scotian had circumnavigated the globe alone aboard the Spray, a 36-foot oyster sloop he had rebuilt from a rotting hulk in a farmer’s field. Slocum departed Boston on April 24, 1895, with almost no money and equipment that professional sailors would have considered inadequate. The Spray had no engine, no modern navigation instruments beyond a cheap tin clock and a sextant, and no self-steering gear. Slocum navigated by dead reckoning and lunar observations, a method that had been obsolete for decades. He financed the voyage through lectures and book sales at ports along the way, often arriving nearly broke and leaving with just enough to reach the next stop. The voyage covered approximately 46,000 miles through some of the most dangerous waters on Earth. Slocum crossed the Atlantic twice, transited the Strait of Magellan through violent storms and encounters with hostile Fuegian natives who attempted to board the Spray at night, crossed the Pacific via Australia, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and recrossed the Atlantic to reach home. He was alone for months at a stretch, with his longest time without seeing land lasting 72 days during the Pacific crossing. Slocum published "Sailing Alone Around the World" in 1900, and the book became a classic of adventure literature that inspired generations of solo sailors. His achievement was not repeated for more than sixty years. Slocum himself was lost at sea in November 1909, departing Martha’s Vineyard aboard the Spray for a planned voyage to South America and never seen again. No wreckage was ever found.