Summary
Summary of Sailing Alone Around the World
Key ideas
Key idea 1
A wreck becomes a way forward
Joshua Slocum has spent his life at sea, but after losing the Aquidneck off Brazil, he finds himself ashore without a command. Then an old whaling captain offers him the Spray, a sloop standing in a field at Fairhaven. She needs far more than a few repairs.
Slocum rebuilds her with his own hands, choosing strength above everything else. While neighbours watch and offer advice, he makes the boat that will let him turn from an uncertain future toward the open ocean.
Key idea 2
Simple tools carry him across
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Key idea 3
Changing course brings fresh dangers
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Key idea 4
Small defenses protect a lone sailor
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Key idea 5
The Pacific drives him back
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Key idea 6
Ocean solitude opens into friendship
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Key idea 7
Welcome ashore helps sustain the voyage
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Key idea 8
Experience answers doubts about the voyage
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Key idea 9
Care and humour guide the voyage
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The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
Read the rest freeWho it’s for
Readers who love sea stories, true adventure and solo challenges will feel at home here, along with armchair travellers, sailors, history fans and anyone who enjoys a witty narrator with a sharp eye for people.
What this book is
Sailing Alone Around the World is the true account of Joshua Slocum, a Nova Scotian sea captain who sailed around the globe by himself in a small sloop. He set out from Boston on April 24, 1895, and came home to Newport on June 27, 1898. He first told the story in chapters for Century Magazine, then gathered it into this book, with a closing note on how his boat was built and steered.
Slocum had spent his life on big ships and had lost his last command off Brazil. With no ship to command, he took an old sloop called the Spray, rebuilt her with his own hands, and decided to test her on the open ocean. What follows is part sea log, part travel diary and part collection of tall tales told with a dry smile.
You will cross the Atlantic, thread the Strait of Magellan, and cross the Pacific. You will visit Samoa, Australia, the Keeling Islands, South Africa and St. Helena, and meet governors, admirals and one very hungry goat. Let us begin where the voyage itself begins, in a farm field in Fairhaven, with a boat that is hardly a boat at all.
In this summary
- 1A wreck in a field becomes a shipFree
- 2Alone across the Atlantic to Gibraltar
- 3Pirates, shipwreck and Southern ports
- 4Tacks, rifles and the Strait of Magellan
- 5Driven toward Cape Horn by a storm
- 6Across the Pacific to Robinson Crusoe's island
- 7Australia, Tasmania and the Barrier Reef
- 8Indian Ocean islands and the road to the Cape
- 9The long road home and what he thinks of it
Key point 1 of 9
A wreck in a field becomes a ship
Joshua Slocum begins with his roots. He is born on North Mountain in Nova Scotia, into a family where every man either sails or whittles boats and dreams of voyages. As a boy he serves briefly as cook on a fishing schooner and is thrown out of the galley after his first duff. From there he works his way up to command.
His finest ship is the Northern Light, which he part owns, and later he sails the little bark Aquidneck. When she is wrecked on the coast of Brazil, he carries his family home to New York in a canoe called the Liberdade. By 1892 he is ashore in Boston, wondering whether to seek another command or work in a shipyard.
Sailing ships are fading, and many are cut down into coal barges. Then an old whaling captain, Eben Pierce, tells him to come to Fairhaven, where a ship is waiting for him. She needs some repairs, the captain admits. In Fairhaven Slocum finds the Spray, a very old sloop propped up in a field far from salt water.
For seven years the neighbours have asked what Pierce will do with her. When Slocum starts work, the whole town comes to watch and offer advice. He fells a pasture oak for the keel, steams saplings to bend them into ribs, and planks her with Georgia pine. He fastens the frame with about a thousand bolts, because he wants her strong above all else.
Whaling captains drop by to inspect the work, and their tales of Arctic ice lead him to fit a double set of breast hooks. When he begins the caulking, passersby shout that the cotton will crawl, while his dog Bruno only wags his tail. It never crawls. The Spray is launched at thirty-six feet nine inches long, with materials costing little more than five hundred dollars, plus thirteen months of Slocum's own labour. A season of fishing goes badly, since he cannot even bait a hook, and so he turns his eyes to the whole world.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Check yourself
Why does Slocum change his planned route after reaching Gibraltar?
Right. “Officers at Gibraltar persuade Slocum to drop his plan of going east by the Suez Canal and to sail west instead.”Not quite. “Officers at Gibraltar persuade Slocum to drop his plan of going east by the Suez Canal and to sail west instead.”
How do the carpet tacks help Slocum in the Strait of Magellan?
Right. “The tacks do their work at night, when raiders step on deck and howl themselves into the sea.”Not quite. “The tacks do their work at night, when raiders step on deck and howl themselves into the sea.”
What does Slocum say prepares a sailor to face the sea?
Right. “What mattered most was knowing the sea and its laws, he argues, and being ready for every emergency.”Not quite. “What mattered most was knowing the sea and its laws, he argues, and being ready for every emergency.”
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 72,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 4 h 50 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 12 other languages
Questions about Sailing Alone Around the World
What is Sailing Alone Around the World about?
It is Joshua Slocum's own account of sailing around the world by himself in the sloop Spray, from Boston in 1895 to Newport in 1898, with stops in many ports and storms along the way.
Is Sailing Alone Around the World a true story?
Yes, it is a true memoir by the captain who made the voyage. He tells it in a lively voice, with humour and some tall tales, and the dates, ports and routes follow his real journey.
How did Slocum build the Spray?
He rebuilt an old sloop given to him at Fairhaven, Massachusetts. He cut an oak for the keel, steamed ribs, planked her with Georgia pine and fastened her with about a thousand bolts, in thirteen months.
What are the carpet tacks for in the book?
A captain at Sandy Point gives Slocum a bag of carpet tacks to scatter on deck at night in Tierra del Fuego. Intruders who step on them howl and flee, so he can sleep safely.
Is Sailing Alone Around the World easy to read?
It is told in plain language with short scenes, jokes and vivid people. Each chapter covers one stage of the voyage, so you can follow the journey port by port and enjoy the humour.
