SLOCUM, Joshua 1844-1910(?)

PERSONAL: Born February 20, 1844, in Wilmot Township, Nova Scotia, Canada; died c. 1910 (some sources say November 14, 1909), at sea; naturalized U.S. citizen, 1869; son of John (a farmer and bootmaker) and Sarah Jane (Southern) Slocum; married Virginia Albertina Walker, 1871 (died 1884); married Henrietta Miller Elliott, 1886; children: (first marriage) four. Education: Attended school until age ten.

CAREER: Sailor and lecturer; sailed around the world alone, 1895-98.

WRITINGS:

Voyage of the Liberdade (also see below), Press of Robinson & Stephenson (Boston, MA), 1890, reprinted, Dover (Mineola, NY), 1998.

Sailing Alone Around the World, illustrated by Thomas Fogarty and George Varian, Century Co. (New York, NY), 1900, reprinted, Regatta Press (Mount Kisco, NY), 2000, published as Around the World in the Sloop Spray, Charles Scribner's Sons (New York, NY), 1903.

Sailing Alone Around the World and Voyage of theLiberdade, introduction by Arthur Ransome, Hart-Davis (London, England), 1948.

The Voyages of Joshua Slocum, collected and introduced by Walter Magnes Teller, Rutgers University Press (New Brunswick, NJ), 1958, anniversary edition, 1995.

Voyage Around the Horn, Phoenix (London, England), 1995.

Also author of Voyage of the Destroyer from New York to Brazil . . . , 1894.

SIDELIGHTS: Captain Joshua Slocum was a Canadian-born American sailor who spent his life from the age of ten at sea. From the time of his first command in 1869 until 1886, Slocum navigated numerous ships carrying cargo to anywhere from Australia to Brazil. After the age of wind-powered sail boats was largely over, Slocum decided he would navigate a ship he had rebuilt called the Spray around the world by himself. His exploits on this trip were published as Sailing Alone Around the World. Slocum died c. 1910 after attempting to sail down the Amazon to the sea and back to New England. He left on November 14, 1909 and was never seen again.

Slocum's Sailing Alone Around the World was first serialized in Century then published as a book in 1900, and is considered a classic of nautical literature. Slocum's tale of his 46,000-mile journey was a success and enabled him to purchase a farm in Martha's Vineyard. "Slocum's writing is as elegant as his thirty-seven-foot sloop," noted a New Yorker critic. "For his gift of graceful expression, his quiet humor and his deep, knowing love of the sea, Captain Slocum stands alone," wrote Bernie Lee in Sports Illustrated.

Sailing Alone Around the World has been published in numerous editions since its first appearance and critics have been largely positive in their assessment of the work. Jonathan Raban in the New York Review of Books noted that though Slocum was in need of an editor to add the polishing touches to his work, the captain has "a pitch perfect ear for tone and cadence—and he created for himself a written voice of understated eloquence and tinderdry irony. In outline, Sailing Alone can easily be misrepresented as solemn. . . . In reality, it is surprisingly funny. . . . If his book resembles Walden, it's even more like Mark Twain's Walden." The Joshua Slocum Society International was founded in 1955 to keep the legendary captain's memory alive.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

books

Blake, Robert J. Spray, Philomel Books (New York, NY), 1996.

Clark, James I., Three Years on the Ocean, Raintree Publishers (Milwaukee, WI), 1980.

Fortman, Janis L., First to Sail the World Alone: Joshua Slocum, C.P.I. (New York, NY), 1978.

Joyce, Jessie Slocum, Joshua Slocum, Sailor: ABiography Written by Beth Day, from the Story Told by His Daughter Jessie Slocum Joyce, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1953.

Lasky, Kathryn, Born in the Breezes: The Voyages ofJoshua Slocum, Orchard Books (New York, NY), 2001.

Lopes, Myra A., Captain Joshua Slocum: A Centennial Tribute, RPI Graphics (New Bedford, MA), 1994.

Lopes, Myra A., Captain Slocum's Life before and after the Spray, RPI Graphics (New Bedford, MA), 1997.

Roberts-Goodson, R. Bruce, Spray: The UltimateCruising Boat, Sheridan House (Dobbs Ferry, NY), 1995.

Spencer, Ann, Alone at Sea: The Adventures of JoshuaSlocum, Doubleday Canada (Toronto, Canada), 1998.

Teller, Walter Magnes, Joshua Slocum, Rutgers University Press (New Brunswick, NJ), 1971.

Teller, Walter Magnes, The Search for CaptainSlocum: A Biography, Scribner (New York, NY), 1956.

periodicals

Cruising World, April, 1995, Phillip Shea, "How He Made Spray 'Pay,'" p. 64.

Maclean's, July 6, 1992, John DeMont, "Sailing Solo," p. 50.

New Yorker, September 7, 1998, review of SailingAlone Around the World, p. 14.

New York Review of Books, April 20, 1995, Jonathan Raban, review of Sailing Alone Around the World, p. 21.

Sports Illustrated, September 5, 1988, Bernie Lee, "Around the World Alone," p. 132.

Yachting, June, 1984, Chris Caswell, review of SailingAlone Around the World, p. 30; February, 1995, Barry Pickthall, "The Lonesome Road," p. 72.*