Part 1 (1/2)

Sailing Alone Around The World

by Joshua Slocum

CHAPTER I

A blue-nose ancestry with Yankee proclivities--Youthful fondness for the sea--Master of the shi+p _Northern Light_--Loss of the _Aquidneck_--Return hoift of a ”shi+p”--The rebuilding of the _Spray_-Conundru of the _Spray_

In the fair land of Nova Scotia, a e called North Mountain, overlooking the Bay of Fundy on one side and the fertile Annapolis valley on the other On the northern slope of the range grows the hardy spruce-tree, well adapted for shi+p-timbers, of which many vessels of all classes have been built The people of this coast, hardy, robust, and strong, are disposed to coainst the master mariner if the birthplace mentioned on his certificate be Nova Scotia I was born in a cold spot, on coldest North Mountain, on a cold February 20, though I am a citizen of the United States--a naturalized Yankee, if it may be said that Nova Scotians are not Yankees in the truest sense of the word On both sides my family were sailors; and if any Slocu, he will show at least an inclination to whittle es My father was the sort of man who, if wrecked on a desolate island, would find his way hoood judge of a boat, but the old clay farm which some calamity made his was an anchor to him He was not afraid of a capful of wind, and he never took a back seat at a caood, old-fashi+oned revival

As for e of eight I had already been afloat along with other boys on the bay, with chances greatly in favor of being drowned When a lad I filled the i-schooner; but I was not long in the galley, for the crew mutinied at the appearance of my first duff, and ”chucked me out” before I had a chance to shi+ne as a culinary artist The next step toward the goal of happiness found n voyage Thus I cah the cabin s, to the conificent shi+p _Northern Light_, of which I was part-owner I had a right to be proud of her, for at that ti-vessel afloat Afterward I owned and sailed the _Aquidneck_, a little bark which of all man's handiwork seemed to me the nearest to perfection of beauty, and which in speed, when the wind blew, asked no favors of steamers, I had been nearly twenty years a shi+pmaster when I quit her deck on the coast of Brazil, where she recked My hoe to New York with my family was made in the canoe _Liberdade_, without accident

[Illustration: Drawn by W Taber The _Northern Light_, Captain Joshua Slocues were all foreign I sailed as freighter and trader principally to China, Australia, and japan, and a the Spice Islands Mine was not the sort of life toto coil up one's ropes on land, the custootten And so when tiot bad, as at last they did, and I tried to quit the sea, as there for an old sailor to do? I was born in the breezes, and I had studied the sea as perhaps fewall else Next in attractiveness, after seafaring, caed to be master in both professions, and in a small way, in time, I accomplished ales I had made calculations as to the size and sort of shi+p safest for all weather and all seas Thus the voyage which I am now to narrate was a natural outco experience

One midwinter day of 1892, in Boston, where I had been cast up froitating whether I should apply for a coo to work at the shi+pyard, when I -captain, who said: ”Coive you a shi+p But,” he added, ”she wants some repairs” The captain's terms, when fully explained, were more than satisfactory to me They included all the assistance I would require to fit the craft for sea I was only too glad to accept, for I had already found that I could not obtain work in the shi+pyard without first paying fifty dollars to a society, and as for a shi+p to coo round Nearly all our tall vessels had been cut down for coal-barges, and were being ignominiously towed by the nose from port to port, while many worthy captains addressed the Harbor

The next day I landed at Fairhaven, opposite New Bedford, and found thatof a joke on me For seven years the joke had been on him The ”shi+p” proved to be a very antiquated sloop called the _Spray,_ which the neighbors declared had been built in the year 1 She was affectionately propped up in a field, some distance from salt water, and was covered with canvas The people of Fairhaven, I hardly need say, are thrifty and observant For seven years they had asked, ”I wonder what Captain Eben Pierce is going to do with the old _Spray?”_ The day I appeared there was a buzz at the gossip exchange: at last some one had co her up, I s'pose?” ”No; going to rebuild her” Great was the amazement ”Will it pay?” was the question which for a year orthat I would make it pay

My ax felled a stout oak-tree near by for a keel, and Farh tied a steam-box and a pot for a boiler

The tis, were dressed and stea, where they were secured till set Soible appeared every day to show for reat day in the _Spray_ shi+pyard when her new ste-captains came from far to survey it With one voice they pronounced it ”A 1,” and in their opinion ”fit to smash ice” The oldest captain shookthat he could see no reason why the _Spray_ should not ”cut in bow-head” yet off the coast of Greenland The much-esteemed stem-piece was from the butt of the smartest kind of a pasture oak It afterward split a coral patch in two at the Keeling Islands, and did not receive a blemish Better tirew The breast-hooks, as well as all the ribs, were of this wood, and were steamed and bent into shape as required It was hard upon March when I began work in earnest; the weather was cold; still, there were plenty of inspectors to back ht I just rested on a-captains, is connected with Fairhaven by a bridge, and the walking is good They never ”worked along up” to the shi+pyard too often forthat inspired me to put a double set of breast-hooks in the _Spray_, that she ht shunt ice

The seasons came quickly while I worked Hardly were the ribs of the sloop up before apple-trees were in bloom Then the daisies and the cherries came soon after Close by the place where the old _Spray_ had now dissolved rested the ashes of John Cook, a revered Pilgriround From the deck of the new craft I could put out rave The planks for the new vessel, which I soon caia pine an inch and a half thick The operation of putting the was easy The outward edges stood slightly open to receive the calking, but the inner edges were so close that I could not see daylight between theh bolts, with screw-nuts tightening them to the timbers, so that there would be no complaint from them Many bolts with screw-nuts were used in other parts of the construction, in all about a thousand It was

[Illustration: Cross-section of the _Spray_]

Now, it is a law in Lloyd's that the _Jane_ repaired all out of the old until she is entirely new is still the _Jane_ The _Spray_ changed her being so gradually that it was hard to say at what point the old died or the new took birth, and it was no matter The bulwarks I built up of white-oak stanchions fourteen inches high, and covered with seven-eighth-inch white pine These stanchions, -board, I calked with thin cedar wedges They have reht ever since The deck I made of one-and-a-half-inch by three-inch white pine spiked to beaia pine, placed three feet apart The deck-inclosures were one over the aperture of the alley, and a trunk farther aft, about ten feet by twelve, for a cabin Both of these rose about three feet above the deck, and were sunk sufficiently into the hold to afford head-roo the sides of the cabin, under the deck, I arranged a berth to sleep in, and shelves for s a place for the medicine-chest In the alley, under the deck, was room for provision of water, salt beef, etc, a now put together as strongly as wood and iron could make her, and the various roo shi+p” Grave fears were entertained by soht to the advisability of a ”professional calker” The very first blow I struck on the cotton with the calking-iron, which I thought was right,”It'll crawl!” cried awith a basket of clams on his back ”It'll crawl!” cried another fro cotton into the seaed his tail Even Mr Ben J----, a noted authority on whaling-shi+ps, whose mind, however, was said to totter, asked rather confidently if I did not think ”it would crawl” ”How fast will it crawl?” cried my old captain friend, who had been towed by many a lively speret into port in time”

[Illustration: ”'It'll crawl'”]

However, I drove a thread of oakum on top of the cotton, as froed his tail The cotton never ”crawled” When the calking was finished, two coats of copper paint were slapped on the bottom, two of white lead on the topsides and bulwarks The rudder was then shi+pped and painted, and on the following day the _Spray_ was launched As she rode at her ancient, rust-eaten anchor, she sat on the water like a swan

The _Spray's_ di, over all, fourteen feet two inches wide, and four feet two inches deep in the hold, her tonnage being nine tons net and twelve and seventy-one hundredths tons gross

Then the mast, a smart New Hampshi+re spruce, was fitted, and likewise all the small appurtenances necessary for a short cruise Sails were bent, and away she fleith my friend Captain Pierce and ht The only thing that noorriedthe beach was, ”Will she pay?” The cost of my new vessel was 55362 for materials, and thirteen months of my own labor I was several ot work now and then on an occasional whale-shi+p fitting farther down the harbor, and that kept me the overtie around the world projected--Froe--Half of a dory for a shi+p's boat--The run fro up in ho old friends

I spent a season inon the coast, only to find that I had not the cunning properly to bait a hook But at last the tiet to sea in earnest I had resolved on a voyage around the world, and as the wind on the hed anchor, set sail, and filled away froly all winter The twelve-o'clock whistles were blowing just as the sloop shot ahead under full sail A short board wasabout she stood seaward, with her boo past the ferries with lively heels A photographer on the outer pier at East Boston got a picture of her as she swept by, her flag at the peak throwing its folds clear A thrilling pulse beat high in ht on deck in the crisp air I felt that there could be no turning back, and that I was engaging in an adventure the hly understood I had taken little advice froht toto the sea That the best of sailors ht do worse than even I alone was borne in upon reat steamshi+p, fully manned, officered, and piloted, lay stranded and broken This was the _Venetian_ She was broken coe So in the first hour of e I had proof that the _Spray_ could at least do better than this full-handed steae than she ”Take warning, _Spray,_ and have a care,” I uttered aloud tofairylike silently down the bay