Sunday June 27, 2021’s Smile of the Day: First Solo Circumnavigation of the globe

On this Day:

In 1898, Canadian-American adventurer Joshua Slocum arrived in Newport, Rhode Island, having completed the 1st solo circumnavigation of the globe.

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.

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 Slocombe 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. Part of the Loyalist migration to Nova Scotia, the Slocombes were granted 500 acres (2.0 km2) of farmland in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis County.

Joshua Slocum was born in the family’s farm house 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 Slocombe family 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 (Joshua changed the spelling of his last name later in his life) 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.

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 of 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.

In Fairhaven, Massachusetts, he rebuilt the 36 ft 9 in (11.20 m) gaff rigged sloop oyster boat named Spray.

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:

I had resolved on a voyage around the world, and as the wind on the morning of April 24, 1895 was fair, at noon I weighed anchor, set sail, and filled away from Boston, where the Spray had been moored snugly all winter. The twelve o’clock whistles were blowing just as the sloop shot ahead under full sail. A short board was made up the harbor on the port tack, then coming about she stood to seaward, with her boom well off to port, and swung past the ferries with lively heels. A photographer on the outer pier of East Boston got a picture of her as she swept by, her flag at the peak throwing her folds clear. A thrilling pulse beat high in me. My step was light on deck in the crisp air. I felt there could be no turning back, and that I was engaging in an adventure the meaning of which I thoroughly understood.

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 to sail 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 of the piracy that still went on there at that time. So he decided to sail westward, in the southern hemisphere. He headed to Brazil, and then 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 the 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 for longitude, which required only a cheap tin clock for approximate time, and noon-sun sights for latitude. On one long passage in the Pacific, Slocum also famously shot a lunar distance observation, decades after these 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; 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 2,000 miles (3,200 km) 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, 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. After the end of major hostilities, many American newspapers published articles describing Slocum’s amazing adventure.

In 1899 he published his account of the epic 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.

Slocum’s Sailing Alone won him widespread fame in the English-speaking world. 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.

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 Slocum sailed the Spray from port to port in the northeastern US during the summer and the West Indies during the winter, lecturing and selling books wherever he could. Slocum spent little time with his wife on the Vineyard and preferred life aboard the Spray, usually wintering in the Caribbean.

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.

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.

In 1924, Joshua Slocum was declared legally dead.

Joshua 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-foot (12 m) 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 great 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 glider—an 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. Slocum 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.

Slocum was inducted into the National Sailing Hall of Fame in 2011 (per Wikipedia).

First, a Story:

The skipper of a 40 ton trawler which ran aground in Cape Cod, Massachusetts during the early hours of Sunday morning was reported to be 6 times over the legal alcohol limit for sailing. Authorities were asking themselves what to do with a drunken sailor so early in the morning.

Second, a Song:

Christopher Cross (born Christopher Charles Geppert; May 3, 1951) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and composer from San Antonio, Texas. Cross won five Grammy Awards for his eponymous debut album released in 1979. The singles “Sailing” (1980), and “Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do)” (from the 1981 film Arthur) peaked at number one in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. “Sailing” earned three Grammys in 1981, while “Arthur’s Theme” won the Oscar for Best Original Song in 1981 (with co-composers Burt Bacharach, Carole Bayer Sager, and Peter Allen).

Cross first played with a San Antonio-based cover band named Flash (not to be confused with the early 1970s English band) before signing a solo contract with Warner Bros. in 1978. Although best known for his vocals, Cross’s guitar-playing is such that it once led to an unfulfilled invitation to play with Donald Fagen and Walter Becker of Steely Dan. He also played guitar during a Deep Purple concert in 1970 when Ritchie Blackmore fell ill shortly before the show.

Cross released his self-titled debut album, Christopher Cross, in 1979. The Billboard Hot 100 top 20 hits from this album included “Ride Like the Wind” (featuring backing vocals by Michael McDonald), “Sailing”, “Never Be the Same”, and “Say You’ll Be Mine” (featuring backing vocals by Nicolette Larson). “Ride Like the Wind” hit No. 2 on the U.S. Hot 100, while “Sailing” topped the chart. “Never Be The Same” went No. 1 on the Adult Contemporary chart. Owing to the almost immediate success and popularity gained by the album, Cross was nominated for several Grammy Awards, garnering five. Cross was the first artist in Grammy history to win all four general field awards in a single ceremony, bringing home Record of the Year (“Sailing”), Album of the Year (Christopher Cross), Song of the Year (“Sailing”), and Best New Artist at the 23rd Annual Grammy Awards in 1981; this was not replicated until Billie Eilish won all four awards at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards in 2020.

“Sailing” is a 1980 soft rock song written and recorded by American artist Christopher Cross. It was released in June 1980 as the second single from his eponymous debut album (1979). The song was a success in the United States, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on August 30, 1980, where it stayed for one week. The song also won Grammy Awards for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Arrangement of the Year, and helped Cross win the Best New Artist award. VH1 named “Sailing” the most “softsational soft rock” song of all time.

The song was recorded in 1979, utilizing the 3M Digital Recording System, making it one of the first digitally recorded songs to chart. In his Grammy acceptance speech, Cross acknowledged “Sailing” as his favorite song on the album and that originally it was not meant to be a single. The song was later identified as an archetype of the style that later became known as yacht rock (Cross and similar artists referred to the style as the West Coast sound at the time).

Cross has said in interviews that the song’s inspiration was his friendship with an older friend from his high school, Al Glasscock, who would take him sailing as a teenager, just to get away from the trials and tribulations of being a teenager. Glasscock functioned as a surrogate older brother during a tough time for Cross emotionally. Although Cross lost touch with Glasscock, The Howard Stern Show in April 1995 reunited Cross with Glasscock, after 28 years. Cross acknowledged on the show that his sailing trips with Glasscock had been the inspiration for the song. After that reunion, Cross sent Glasscock a copy of the platinum record he earned for selling more than five million copies of “Sailing.” (per Wikipedia).

Jan Marvin states that she “[P]ut this short film together with the song, Sailing by Christopher Cross, to share my experience aboard the Schooner Pride. Some of the clips were taken with a cheap digital camera back in the day before we had cell phones that could take video. I hope you enjoy it. I watch this video often to escape the pressures of daily life. My art is inspired by the beach and the ocean so I create beachy and fun, whimsical art. See my art pieces, home decor and more at https://JanMarvinArt.com/” (from YouTube.com)

Here is Jan Marvin’s video set to Christopher Cross’ song “Sailing”.  I hope you enjoy this!

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KG74xOhXHI)

Thought for the Day:

“And now, without having wearied my friends, I hope, with detailed scientific accounts, theories, or deductions, I will only say that I have endeavoured to tell just the story of the adventure itself.” – Joshua Slocum

Have a great day!

Dave & Colleen

© 2021 David J. Bilinsky and Colleen E. Bilinsky

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