8 h 3 minAudiobook15 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
One man, a sailing vessel, and a voyage around the world: what does it take to keep going alone?
In Sailing Alone Around the World, Joshua Slocum tells of his solo voyage around the globe. The journey gives this personal account its scope; the man undertaking it gives it its heart. Adventure and biography meet in a story of sailing alone and holding to a purpose.
Slocum’s unshakable determination stands at the center of the book. A voyage around the world is an immense undertaking, but here it belongs to one person. That contrast draws you close: the vast reach of the journey set against the resolve of the man who makes it.
What you’ll discover
- A world-spanning adventure Follow a solo sailing voyage whose course reaches around the globe.
- The man behind the journey Meet Joshua Slocum through his own account of an extraordinary personal undertaking.
- Determination at the center Explore a story that brings unshakable resolve into the heart of adventure.
- The pull of solitude Consider what it means to undertake so vast a journey alone.
- A purpose held firm Find the appeal of a clear goal pursued with unwavering determination.
Who will love it
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’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A wreck in a field becomes a ship
- Alone across the Atlantic to Gibraltar
- Pirates, shipwreck and Southern ports
- Tacks, rifles and the Strait of Magellan
- Driven toward Cape Horn by a storm
- Across the Pacific to Robinson Crusoe's island
- Australia, Tasmania and the Barrier Reef
- Indian Ocean islands and the road to the Cape
- The long road home and what he thinks of it
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
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Sailing Alone Around the World
by Joshua Slocum · 1900
A retired sea captain rebuilds a rotting sloop and sets out alone to sail around the world.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
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.
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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.
The author
Joshua Slocum
1844–1909 · American navigator and maritime writer
Joshua Slocum was born in Nova Scotia in 1844 and later became an American citizen. He worked as a sailor and ship captain. From 1895 to 1898, he sailed alone around the world. He published Sailing Alone Around the World in 1900. He disappeared at sea in 1909.
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