Joshua Slocum's autobiographical account of his solo trip around the world is one of the most remarkable - and entertaining - travel narratives of all time. Setting off alone from Boston aboard the thirty-six-foot wooden sloop Spray in April 1895, Captain Slocum went on to join the ranks of the world's great circumnavigators - Magellan, Drake, and Cook. But by circling the globe without crew or consorts, Slocum would outdo them all: his three-year solo voyage of more than 46,000 miles remains unmatched in maritime history for its courage, skill, and determination.

Sailing Alone around the World recounts Slocum's wonderful adventures: hair-raising encounters with pirates off Gibraltar and savage Indians in Tierra del Fuego; raging tempests and treacherous coral reefs; flying fish for breakfast in the Pacific; and a hilarious visit with fellow explorer Henry Stanley in South Africa. A century later, Slocum's incomparable book endures as one of the greatest narratives of adventure ever written.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Josh Slocum and Lisa Carlson are the two most prominent advocates of consumer rights in dealing with the death industry. Here they combine efforts to inform consumers of their rights and propose long-needed reforms. Slocum is executive director of Funeral Consumers Alliance, a national nonprofit with over 90 local affiliates nationwide. Carlson is executive director of Funeral Ethics Organization, which works with the industry to try to improve ethical standards. In addition to nationwide issues, the book covers state-by-state information needed by anybody who wishes to take charge of funeral arrangements for a loved one, with or without the help of a funeral director. More information about the book and related issues can be found at www.finalrights.org .

The classic of its kind. --Travel World
One of the most readable books in the whole library of adventure. --Sports Illustrated
The finest single-handed adventure story yet written. --Seafarer
Challenged by an expert who said it couldn't be done, Joshua Slocum, an indomitable New England sea captain, set out in April of 1895 to prove that a man could sail alone around the world. 46,000 miles and a little over 3 years later, the proof was complete: Captain Slocum had performed the epic first single-handedly in a trusty 34-foot sloop called the Spray. This is Slocum's own account of his remarkable adventures during the historic voyage.
Slocum writes in a fast-paced, exhilarating style. His almost matter-of-fact descriptions of hazardous episodes and his colorful, often witty observations make this book perhaps the most delightful and absorbing adventure tale in history. Across the Atlantic he sailed, but chased by Moorish pirates off Gibraltar, he decided to circle Cape Horn instead and go around the world the other way! He tells of perils on stormy seas and of numerous harrowing events: his escape from a fleet of hostile canoes; an encounter with Black Pedro, the worst murderer in Tierra del Fuego; foiling a nocturnal attack by savages by strewing carpet tacks on the Spray's deck; submerged by a great wave off the Patagonian coast; the rain of blood in Australia; dodging coral reefs in the South Seas. In Samoa, he was visited by Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson; in South Africa, he talked congenially with Stanley of Stanley and Livingstone fame, and met Oom Paul Kruger, President of the Transvaal republic. Kruger was incensed when one of his officials described Slocum's voyage as around the world, since his religious beliefs convinced him that the world was flat!
This robust classic of the sea has been widely read ever since its first publication in 1900. It has been reprinted several times and has even been required reading in many schools. This edition (complete with all of the original Thomas Fogarty illustrations) of Captain Slocum's story will prove as enjoyable and thrilling to the present generation of Americans as it was to our fathers and grandfathers.

This book is widely regarded a classic of sailing literature because it is an account written by the sailor who made the first solo navigation of the globe under sail. A biography of Joshua Slocum would make riveting reading in its own right, for inherent in him were all the attributes of the ideal seaman of the latter half of the nineteenth century. An unquenchable spirit of adventure propelled him through many voyages and hairsbreadth escapes from the forces of nature and pirates. In 1895 he set sail from America in 'Spray, ' a 36' 9'' gaff rigged sloop oyster boat he had rebuilt himself. Navigating mainly without using his chronometer and only by 'dead-reckoning' Slocum sailed 'Spray' without actually touching the helm. His circumnavigation, which took three years to complete, covered a distance of some 46,000 miles. His triumphant return to America went virtually unnoticed-because the newspapers were focussed on the recent outbreak of war between Spain and America. This book, detailing his epic voyage and many adventures, was written shortly after his return, was serialised in magazines and became a rapid bestseller, earning glowing encomiums from many notably figures, especially from highly regarded authors of the time, including Arthur Ransome and Mark Twain, which elevated Joshua Slocum to international fame. This edition of his work is beautifully illustrated and is available in soft cover and hard cover with dust jacket. Leonaur hard covers are ideal for collections or to be presented as a forever treasured gift.

Joshua Slocum's epic solo voyage around the world in 1895 in the thirty-seven-foot sloop Spray stands as one of the greatest sea adventures of all time. It remains one of the major feats of single-handed voyaging and has since been the inspiration for the many who have gone to sea in small boats.

Starting from Boston in 1895 and dropping anchor in Newport, Rhode Island, over three years after his journey began, Slocum cruised some forty-six thousand miles entirely by sail and entirely alone. Slocum's account of his voyage is a classic of sailing literature, acclaimed as an unequaled masterpiece of vital yet disciplined prose--here in a new edition for all admirers of his legendary achievement.

This book is widely regarded a classic of sailing literature because it is an account written by the sailor who made the first solo navigation of the globe under sail. A biography of Joshua Slocum would make riveting reading in its own right, for inherent in him were all the attributes of the ideal seaman of the latter half of the nineteenth century. An unquenchable spirit of adventure propelled him through many voyages and hairsbreadth escapes from the forces of nature and pirates. In 1895 he set sail from America in 'Spray, ' a 36' 9'' gaff rigged sloop oyster boat he had rebuilt himself. Navigating mainly without using his chronometer and only by 'dead-reckoning' Slocum sailed 'Spray' without actually touching the helm. His circumnavigation, which took three years to complete, covered a distance of some 46,000 miles. His triumphant return to America went virtually unnoticed-because the newspapers were focussed on the recent outbreak of war between Spain and America. This book, detailing his epic voyage and many adventures, was written shortly after his return, was serialised in magazines and became a rapid bestseller, earning glowing encomiums from many notably figures, especially from highly regarded authors of the time, including Arthur Ransome and Mark Twain, which elevated Joshua Slocum to international fame. This edition of his work is beautifully illustrated and is available in soft cover and hard cover with dust jacket. Leonaur hard covers are ideal for collections or to be presented as a forever treasured gift.

First published in 1900, Sailing Alone Around the World is the detailed account of how Joshua Slocum would become the first person to circumnavigate the globe by himself. Aboard a sloop named the 'Spray', which Slocum himself rebuilt and refitted, he would depart from Boston on April, 24th, 1895 on this remarkable journey. Over the course of the next three years the boat would take him to Gloucester, Nova Scotia, Azores, Gibraltar, Morocco, the Canary Islands, the Cape Verde Islands, Pernambuco, Rio de Janeiro, Maldonado, Montevideo, through the Strait of Magellan, through the Cockburn Channel, Port Angosto, Juan Fernandez, Marquesas, Samoa, Fiji, Sydney, Melbourne, Tasmania, Cooktown, Christmas Island, Keeling Cocos, Rodrigues, Mauritius, Durban, Cape Town, Transvaal, St Helena, Ascension Island, Devil's Island, Trinidad, Grenada, Newport, and finally back to Fairhaven in Massachusetts. Filled with numerous illustrations, Sailing Alone Around the World is a real-life nautical tale of adventure filled with perilous encounters and challenges. A classic story of self-determination, Sailing Alone Around the World has inspired generations of sailors and adventurers alike ever since its original publication. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.

This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.

Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.

This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.

Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Captain Slocum's South American sailing adventure

American mariner Joshua Slocum is best remembered for his 1895 solo circumnavigation of the world and the bestselling book, now a classic of sailing literature, that ensued, 'Sailing Alone Around the World'. That epic voyage in the sloop, 'Spray' was not, however, Slocum's first great sailing adventure or the first of them which he recounted in a book. Following the loss of his ship off the coast of South America, Slocum salvaged enough material from the wreckage to build another craft which he and his family sailed through the Caribbean to return to the United States. This brave little 35ft boat was launched on May 13th, 1888 and named 'The Liberdade' to celebrate, on that same day, the abolition of slavery in Brazil. Slocum has rarely been surpassed as a narrator of nautical adventures and the 'Voyage of the Liberdade' is a riveting and essential companion work to 'Sailing Alone around the World'.

Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket.

Captain Slocum's South American sailing adventure

American mariner Joshua Slocum is best remembered for his 1895 solo circumnavigation of the world and the bestselling book, now a classic of sailing literature, that ensued, 'Sailing Alone Around the World'. That epic voyage in the sloop, 'Spray' was not, however, Slocum's first great sailing adventure or the first of them which he recounted in a book. Following the loss of his ship off the coast of South America, Slocum salvaged enough material from the wreckage to build another craft which he and his family sailed through the Caribbean to return to the United States. This brave little 35ft boat was launched on May 13th, 1888 and named 'The Liberdade' to celebrate, on that same day, the abolition of slavery in Brazil. Slocum has rarely been surpassed as a narrator of nautical adventures and the 'Voyage of the Liberdade' is a riveting and essential companion work to 'Sailing Alone around the World'.

Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket.

First published in 1900, Sailing Alone Around the World is the detailed account of how Joshua Slocum would become the first person to circumnavigate the globe by himself. Aboard a sloop named the 'Spray', which Slocum himself rebuilt and refitted, he would depart from Boston on April, 24th, 1895 on this remarkable journey. Over the course of the next three years the boat would take him to Gloucester, Nova Scotia, Azores, Gibraltar, Morocco, the Canary Islands, the Cape Verde Islands, Pernambuco, Rio de Janeiro, Maldonado, Montevideo, through the Strait of Magellan, through the Cockburn Channel, Port Angosto, Juan Fernandez, Marquesas, Samoa, Fiji, Sydney, Melbourne, Tasmania, Cooktown, Christmas Island, Keeling Cocos, Rodrigues, Mauritius, Durban, Cape Town, Transvaal, St Helena, Ascension Island, Devil's Island, Trinidad, Grenada, Newport, and finally back to Fairhaven in Massachusetts. Filled with numerous illustrations, Sailing Alone Around the World is a real-life nautical tale of adventure filled with perilous encounters and challenges. A classic story of self-determination, Sailing Alone Around the World has inspired generations of sailors and adventurers alike ever since its original publication. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper.

Sailing Alone Around the World is a sailing memoir by Joshua Slocum in 1900 about his single-handed global circumnavigation aboard the sloop Spray. Slocum was the first person to sail around the world alone. The book was an immediate success and highly influential in inspiring later travelers.

Captain Slocum was a highly experienced navigator and ship owner. He rebuilt and refitted the derelict sloop Spray in a seaside pasture at Fairhaven, Massachusetts, over 13 months between early 1893 and 1894.

Between 24 April 1895 and 27 June 1898, Slocum, aboard the Spray, crossed the Atlantic twice (to Gibraltar and back to South America), negotiated the Strait of Magellan, and crossed the Pacific. He also visited Australia and South Africa before crossing the Atlantic (for the third time) to return to Massachusetts after a journey of 46,000 miles.

Slocum attracted considerable international interest by his journey, particularly once he had entered the Pacific. He was awaited at most of his ports of call, and gave lectures and lantern-slide shows to well-filled halls. His journal was first published in installments before being issued in book form in 1900. The book was lavishly illustrated.

Slocum tells his story as a sequence of adventures, understating his own part and giving credit always to the Spray. He invents a crew-member, a supposed pilot of Columbus' Pinta, to take credit for the safety of the vessel while he sleeps.

The trip itinerary was as follows: Fairhaven, Boston, Gloucester, Nova Scotia, Azores, Gibraltar, (Morocco), Canary Islands, Cape Verde Islands, Pernambuco, Rio de Janeiro, Maldonado, Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Strait of Magellan, Cockburn Channel, Port Angosto, Juan Fernandez, Marquesas, Samoa, Fiji, Sydney, Melbourne, Tasmania, Cooktown, Christmas Island, Keeling Cocos, Rodrigues, Mauritius, Durban, Cape Town, (Transvaal), St Helena, Ascension Island, Devil's Island, Trinidad, Grenada, Newport, Fairhaven.

Highlights of the journey included perils of sailing blue water, such as fog, gales, danger of collision, loneliness, doldrums, navigation, fatigue, gear failure. Other perils of coastal navigation included pirates, attack by 'savages' [sic], embayment, shoals and coral reefs, stranding, and shipwreck.

Passing by Tierra del Fuego, he was warned that he might be attacked by the indigenous Yahgan Indians in the night, so he sprinkled tacks on the deck. He was awakened in the middle of the night by yelps of pain. He was proud of resourcefully defending himself.

He devised a system of lashing the wheel into what a later era might call a kind of mechanical autopilot. He took pride in the fact that the Spray sailed 2000 miles west across the Pacific without his once touching the helm. (wikipedia.org)

Sailing Alone Around the World is a sailing memoir by Joshua Slocum in 1900 about his single-handed global circumnavigation aboard the sloop Spray. Slocum was the first person to sail around the world alone. The book was an immediate success and highly influential in inspiring later travelers.

Captain Slocum was a highly experienced navigator and ship owner. He rebuilt and refitted the derelict sloop Spray in a seaside pasture at Fairhaven, Massachusetts, over 13 months between early 1893 and 1894.

Between 24 April 1895 and 27 June 1898, Slocum, aboard the Spray, crossed the Atlantic twice (to Gibraltar and back to South America), negotiated the Strait of Magellan, and crossed the Pacific. He also visited Australia and South Africa before crossing the Atlantic (for the third time) to return to Massachusetts after a journey of 46,000 miles.

Slocum attracted considerable international interest by his journey, particularly once he had entered the Pacific. He was awaited at most of his ports of call, and gave lectures and lantern-slide shows to well-filled halls. His journal was first published in installments before being issued in book form in 1900. The book was lavishly illustrated.

Slocum tells his story as a sequence of adventures, understating his own part and giving credit always to the Spray. He invents a crew-member, a supposed pilot of Columbus' Pinta, to take credit for the safety of the vessel while he sleeps.

The trip itinerary was as follows: Fairhaven, Boston, Gloucester, Nova Scotia, Azores, Gibraltar, (Morocco), Canary Islands, Cape Verde Islands, Pernambuco, Rio de Janeiro, Maldonado, Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Strait of Magellan, Cockburn Channel, Port Angosto, Juan Fernandez, Marquesas, Samoa, Fiji, Sydney, Melbourne, Tasmania, Cooktown, Christmas Island, Keeling Cocos, Rodrigues, Mauritius, Durban, Cape Town, (Transvaal), St Helena, Ascension Island, Devil's Island, Trinidad, Grenada, Newport, Fairhaven.

Highlights of the journey included perils of sailing blue water, such as fog, gales, danger of collision, loneliness, doldrums, navigation, fatigue, gear failure. Other perils of coastal navigation included pirates, attack by 'savages' [sic], embayment, shoals and coral reefs, stranding, and shipwreck.

Passing by Tierra del Fuego, he was warned that he might be attacked by the indigenous Yahgan Indians in the night, so he sprinkled tacks on the deck. He was awakened in the middle of the night by yelps of pain. He was proud of resourcefully defending himself.

He devised a system of lashing the wheel into what a later era might call a kind of mechanical autopilot. He took pride in the fact that the Spray sailed 2000 miles west across the Pacific without his once touching the helm. (wikipedia.org)

Great mariner's thrilling, first-hand account of the wreck of his ship off the coast of South America, the 35-foot brave little craft he built from the wreckage, and its remarkable, danger-fraught voyage home. A 19th-century maritime classic brimming with courage, ingenuity, and daring.

Bio:

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'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. (wikipedia.org)