9 h 13 minAudiobook7 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What can a young traveller learn when the sea becomes his school?
In A Boy's Voyage Round the World, Samuel Smiles follows a young traveller who goes to sea and encounters the wider world. Ships connect Britain with distant lands, carrying goods, letters and people across oceans. For a curious boy, the voyage offers more than new places: it puts habits and character to the test.
Smiles treats travel as a chance to grow through work, patience and curiosity. His plain, kindly, earnest voice invites you into a Victorian view of adventure, where learning about the world also means learning how to live. The journey brings geography, trade and the customs of other peoples into the young reader's view.
What you’ll discover
- The sea as school Follow a young traveller whose long voyage becomes a test of patience and effort.
- A world linked by ships Explore an age when ocean journeys connect distant lands with life in Britain.
- Character shaped by effort Discover Smiles's belief that work and curiosity help a young person grow.
- Curiosity beyond familiar shores Look outward through a journey concerned with geography, trade and other peoples' customs.
- An earnest Victorian voice Meet a kindly storyteller who asks young readers to see travel as a lesson.
Who will love it
Readers who love true travel tales, sailing ships, gold rush towns and Victorian curiosity. It suits anyone who enjoys a cheerful young eyewitness describing far-off places, odd characters and daily life with a sharp eye.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A rough start in the Channel
- Fellow passengers and shipboard days
- Heat, calms and ships met at sea
- The Southern Ocean and landfall
- Melbourne, the young city
- Up country to Majorca and the bank
- Bush, seasons and neighbors
- Gold, rough justice and Ballarat
- Leaving Australia and crossing America
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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A Boy's Voyage Round the World
by Samuel Smiles · 1871
A sick young Englishman boards the Yorkshire for Melbourne and ends up circling the globe by sail, steam and rail.
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In short
Imagine being sent to sea by your doctor. First comes the sea passage south, with storms, calms, a race against a clipper and a rescue in the tropics.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A rough start in the Channel
The journal opens on February 20 at Gravesend, where the writer has said his last farewells. The deck of the Yorkshire is a muddle of sheep pens, hen coops, rope and stores. A cow named Molly is hoisted aboard by a rope and set down gently in her stall beside the cook's galley. Sleet falls and the passengers are damp. He explores his new home. His little cabin has a six-pane window, a shelf of books and a swing lamp, and it looks surprisingly cozy. His first night is poor, with no room to turn over and the noise of ducks, sheep and pigs outside his door. At dawn a steam tug tows the ship downriver. A southwest gale follows, and the mainsail blows out of its ropes with a bang like a gun. The ship passes the Rosa of Guernsey, abandoned and sinking, and the writer wonders what became of her crew. After three days sheltering at Plymouth, England fades behind them. He is honest about his seasickness and small blunders, and he delights in each new detail.
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What is A Boy's Voyage Round the World about?
It is a travel journal of a young Englishman who sails to Melbourne for his health, works in an Australian gold town for eighteen months, and returns via New Zealand, Hawaii and across America by rail.
Is A Boy's Voyage Round the World a true story?
Yes, it is a factual account of a real journey made around 1870, kept as a log and letters for family and friends. It records places, ships and people the writer met.
Who wrote A Boy's Voyage Round the World?
Samuel Smiles, who died in 1902. He is also known for Self-Help, which the writer remarks on seeing in the prison library at Pentridge.
The author
Samuel Smiles
1812–1904 · Scottish writer and journalist
Samuel Smiles was a Scottish writer and journalist born in Haddington in 1812. He trained as a doctor and later worked in journalism and railway administration. He published Self-Help in 1859 and A Boy’s Voyage Round the World in 1871. He lived in Leeds and London, where he died in 1904.
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