First Around Alone

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The Liberdade was born of desperation but proved to be cathartic. 'We learned to love the little canoe as well as anything could be loved that is made by hand,' Slocum wrote later.

The adventure persuaded him to try his hand at writing. His book, The Voyage of the Liberdade, failed to sell. But a second volume, The Voyage of the Destroyer, won him a few fans. Then, in the winter of 1892, an old sea captain told the idle salty dog, 'Come to Fairhaven [Massachusetts], and I'll give you a ship.'

It was an offer Slocum couldn't refuse, even though most would have. Historians guess the Spray was originally built as a fishing hulk in New England around 1800. But Slocum saw the antique tub as the ticket to the ultimate sailing voyage. He would rebuild it and sail it around the world.

His plan was scoffed at by most, especially the busybodies of Fairhaven. Flat, old and wide, the Spray did not conform to the design of oceangoing cruisers. Though there were few believers, Slocum at least had a sponsor. Century Magazine agreed to publish pieces on the voyage, giving the captain a trickle of cash. But money was not why Slocum was doing it. It was an act of rebellion, a bit of nautical can-doism for the mechanized era. He wrote:

'If the Spray discovered no continents on her voyage, it may be that there were no more continents to be discovered; she did not seek new worlds, or sail to powwow about the dangers of the seas. The sea has been much maligned. To find one's way to lands already discovered is a good thing.'

The voyage was largely improvised. 'Where shall next I be heard from, I cannot tell,' he told a reporter when first starting off. Slocum originally sailed east from Boston. In the Mediterranean, though, Moroccan pirates gave chase. He dodged them with a few deft turns and then recrossed the Atlantic, sailing east to west. (As a result, Slocum actually went 1.33 times around the world.)

He rounded the rough seas of Cape Horn and sailed up to Juan Fernandez Island and then to Samoa and Tonga. Indonesia, Australia, South Africa and the South Atlantic outpost of Saint Helena followed. A third crossing of the Atlantic put him in the Caribbean and North America again. He had no chronometer, and sailed by the stars and an old tin clock.

Near-death experiences occurred throughout his trip. He almost drowned off Brazil when a huge wave swept over the ship. (Believe it or not, he couldn't swim.) The boat nearly got swamped near the Strait of Magellan in successive, violent storms. He almost sank the boat trying to dodge the hallucination of a coral reef near Trinidad.

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