Sailing Alone Around the World - Couverture souple

On April 24, 1895, Captain Joshua Slocum set out on a three-year journey to circumnavigate the world alone by boat. Crossing the Pacific and Atlantic oceans in his sloop, the Spray, Slocum visited South Africa, South America, and Australia before returning home as the first man to successfully sail around the world solo.

Slocum’s memoir tells of pirate attacks, gale-force winds, strange hallucinations and the ever-present threat of shipwreck. Restless and land-weary, Slocum set sail again in 1909 and was never heard from. He was declared legally dead in 1924.

Sailing Alone Around the World was originally published as installments from Slocum’s journal. The original work is generously illustrated and remains one of the greatest narratives of seafaring adventure ever written.

Born in Nova Scotia, Canada, Joshua Slocum was the first man to sail single-handedly around the world. An international bestseller, Sailing Alone Around the World was a critical success upon its publication in 1900. Slocum enjoyed widespread fame in the English-speaking world, including an invitation to speak at a dinner in honor of Mark Twain, until his disappearance while aboard his boat the Spray in 1909. At the time, it was believed his boat had been run down by a steamer or struck by a whale, however it was later determined that the Spray could also have easily capsized. Despite a lifetime at sea, Slocum never learned to swim. He was declared legally dead in 1924.