 Chapter 21 of Sailing Alone Around the World. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Reading by Alan Chunt. Sailing Alone Around the World by Joshua Slocum. Chapter 21. Consisting of Clearing for Home. In the calm belt. A sea covered with sagasso. The gib stay parts in a gale. Welcomed by a tornado of fire-island. A change of plan. A rival at Newport. End of a cruise of over 46,000 miles. The spray again at Fairhaven. On the 4th of June, 1898, the spray cleared from the United States Consulate, and her license to sail single-handed, even round the world, was returned to her for the last time. The United States Consul, Mr. Hunt, before handing the papers to me, wrote on it as General Roberts had done at Cape Town, a short commentary on the voyage. The document by regular course is now lodged in the Treasury Department at Washington, D.C. On June 5, 1898, the spray sailed for a home port, heading first direct to Cape Hatteras. On the 8th of June she passed under the Sun from south to north. The Sun's declination on that day was 22°54 minutes, and the latitude of the spray was the same just before noon. Many think it is excessively hot right under the Sun. It is not necessarily so. As a matter of fact, the thermometer stands at a bearable point whenever there is a breeze and a ripple on the sea, even exactly under the Sun. It is often hotter in cities and on sandy shores in higher latitudes. The spray was booming joyously along for home now, making her usual good time, when, of a sudden, she struck the horse latitudes, and her sail flapped limp in a calm. I had almost forgotten this calm belt, or had come to regard it as a myth. I now found it real, however, and difficult to cross. This was as it should have been, for after all the dangers of the sea, the dust storm on the coast of Africa, the rain of blood in Australia, and the war risk when nearing home, a natural experience would have been missing had the calm of the horse latitudes been left out. Anyhow, a philosophical turn of thought now was not a miss, else one's patience would have given out almost at the harbour entrance. The term of her probation was eight days. Evening after evening during this time, I read by the light of a candle on deck. There was no wind at all, and the sea became smooth and monotonous. For three days I saw a fully rigged ship on the horizon also be calmed. Sagasso scattered over the sea in bunches, or trailed curiously along down the wind in narrow lanes, now gathered together in great fields, strange sea animals, little and big swimming in and out, the most curious among them being a tiny seahorse which I captured and brought home preserved in a bottle. But on the eighteenth of June a gale began to blow from the south-west, and the Sagasso was dispersed again in windrows and lanes. On this day there was soon wind enough and to spare. The same might have been said of the sea. The spray was in the midst of the turbulent gulf stream itself. She was jumping like a porpoise over the uneasy waves, as if to make up for lost time she seemed to touch only the high places. Under a sudden shock and strain her rigging began to give out. First the mainstay strap was carried away, then the peak halyard block broke from the gaff. It was time to reef and refit, and so when all hands came on deck I went about doing that. The nineteenth of June was fine, but on the morning of the twentieth another gale was blowing, accompanied by cross seas that tumbled about and shook things up with great confusion. Just as I was thinking about taking in sail the jib-stay broke at the masthead and fell jib and all into the sea. It gave me the strangest sensation to see the bellying sail fall and where it had been suddenly to see only space. However I was in the boughs with presence of mind to gather it in on the first wave that rolled up before it was torn or trailed under the sloop's bottom. I found by the amount of work done in three minutes or less time that I had by no means grown stiff-jointed on the voyage. Anyhow scurvy had not set in. And now, being within a few degrees of home, I might complete the voyage, I thought, without the aid of a doctor. Yes, my health was still good, and I could skip about the decks in lively manner, but could I climb? The great king Neptune tested me severely at this time, for the stay being gone the mast itself switched about like a reed, and was not easy to climb. But a gun-tackle purchase was got up, and the stay set taut from the masthead, for I had spare blocks and rope on board with which to rig it, and the jib, with a reef in it, was soon pulling again like a sojour for home. Had the spray's mast not been well stepped, however, it would have been John Walker when the stay broke. Good work in the building of my vessel stood me always in good stead. On the 23rd of June, I was at last tired, tired, tired of baffling schools and fretful cobble seas. I had not seen a vessel for days and days, where I had expected the company of at least a schooner now and then. As to the whistling of the wind through the rigging, and the slopping of the seas against the sloop's sides, that was well enough in its way, and we could not have got on without it the spray and I. But there was so much of it now, and it lasted so long. At noon on that day a winterish storm was upon us from the Norwest. In the Gulf Stream, thus late in June, hailstones were pelting the spray, and lightning was pouring down from the clouds, not in flashes alone, but in almost continuous streams. By slants, however, day and night, I worked the sloop in towards the coast, where on the 25th of June, off Fire Island, she fell into the tornado which an hour earlier had swept over New York City with lightning that wrecked buildings and sent trees flying about in splinters. Even ships at docks had parted their moorings and smashed into other ships doing great damage. It was the climax storm of the voyage, but I saw the unmistakable character of it in time to have all snuggled aboard and receive it under bare poles. Even so the sloop shivered when it struck her, and she healed over unwillingly on her beam ends, but rounding to with a sea anchor ahead she righted and faced out the storm. In the midst of the gale I could do no more than look on, for what is a man in a storm like this? I had seen one electric storm on the voyage off the coast of Madagascar, but it was unlike this one. Here the lightning kept on longer, and thunderbolts fell in the sea all about. Up to this time I was bound for New York, but when all was over I rose, made sail, and hove the sloop round from starboard to port-tac to make for a quiet harbour to think the matter over. And so under short sail she reached in for the coast of Long Island, while I sat thinking and watching the lights of coasting vessels which now began to appear in sight. Reflections of the voyage so nearly finished, stole in upon me now. Many tunes I had hummed again and again came back once more. I found myself repeating fragments of a hymn often sung by a dear Christian woman of Fairhaven when I was rebuilding the spray. I was to hear once more, and only once, in profound solemnity the metaphorical hymn. By waves and wind I'm tossed and driven, and again, but still my little ship outbraves the blustering winds and stormy waves. After this storm I saw the pilot of the pinter no more. The experiences of the voyage of the spray reaching over three years had been to me like reading a book, and one that was more and more interesting as I turned the pages till I had come now to the last page of all, and the one more interesting than any of the rest. When daylight came I saw that the sea had changed colour from dark green to light. I threw the lead and got soundings in thirteen fathoms. I made the land soon after, some miles east of Fire Island, and sailing thence before a pleasant breeze along the coast made for Newport. The weather after the furious gale was remarkably fine. The spray rounded Montauk Point early in the afternoon. Point Judith was a beam at dark. She fetched in at Beaver Tail next. Sailing on she had one more danger to pass. Newport Harbour was mined. The spray hugged the rocks along where neither friend nor foe could come if drawing much water, and where she would not disturb the guardship in the channel. It was close work, but it was safe enough so long as she hugged the rocks close and not the mines. Flitting by a low point abreast of the guardship the dear old dexter which I knew well, someone on board of her sang out, There goes a craft! I threw up a light at once, and heard the hail, Spray ahoy! It was the voice of a friend, and I knew that a friend would not fire on the spray. I eased off the mainsheet now, and the spray swung off for the beacon lights of the Inner Harbour. At last she reached Port in safety, and there at 1 a.m. on June 27, 1898, cast anchor after the cruise of more than 46,000 miles round the world, during an absence of three years and two months, with two days over for coming up. Was the crew well? Was I not? I had profited in many ways by the voyage, I had even gained flesh and actually weighed a pound more than when I sailed from Boston. As for ageing, why the dial of my life was turned back till my friends all said, Slocum is young again. And so I was, at least ten years younger than the day I fell the first tree for the construction of the spray. My ship was also in better condition than when she sailed from Boston on her long voyage. She was still as sound as a nut, and as tight as the best ship afloat. She did not leak a drop, not one drop. The pump, which had been little used before reaching Australia, had not been rigged since that at all. The first name on the spray's visitors' book in the home port was written by the one who always said, The spray will come back. The spray was not quite satisfied till I sailed her around to her birthplace, Fairhaven, Massachusetts, further along. I had myself a desire to return to the place of the very beginning whence I had, as I have said, renewed my age. So on July 3 with a fair wind, she waltzed beautifully round the coast and up the Akushnet River to Fairhaven, where I secured her to the cedar-spile driven in the bank to hold her when she was launched. I could bring her no nearer home. If the spray discovered no continents on her voyage, it may be that there were no continents left to be discovered. She did not seek new worlds, or sail to Powwow about the dangers of the sea. The sea has been much maligned. To find one's way to land's already discovered is a good thing, and the spray made the discovery that even the worst sea is not so terrible to a well-appointed ship. No king, no country, no treasury at all was taxed for the voyage of the spray, and she accomplished all that she undertook to do. To succeed, however, in anything at all one should go understandingly about his work and be prepared for every emergency. I see, as I look back over my own small achievement, a kit of not too elaborate carpenter's tools, a tin clock, and some carpet tax, not a great many, to facilitate the enterprise as already mentioned in the story. But above all to be taken into account were some years of schooling where I studied with diligence Neptune's laws, and these laws I tried to obey when I sailed overseas. It was worth the while. And now without having wearied my friends, I hope with detailed scientific accounts, theories, or deductions, I will only say that I have endeavoured to tell just the story of the adventure itself. This, in my own poor way, having been done, I now moor ship, weather-bit cables, and leave the sloop spray for the present, safe in port. Appendix to Sailing Alone Around the World This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Alan Chant. Sailing Alone Around the World by Joshua Slokum Appendix, consisting of Lines and Sail Plan of the Spray Her pedigree as known so far The Lines of the Spray Her self-steering qualities Sail Plan and Steering Gear An unprecedented feat A final word of cheer to would-be navigators From a feeling of diffidence towards sailors of great experience I refrained in the preceding chapters as prepared for serial publication in the Century Magazine from entering fully into the details of the Spray's build and of the primitive methods employed to sail her. Having had no sailing experience at all I had no means of knowing that the trim vessels seen in our harbours and near the land could not all do as much or even more than the Spray sailing, for example, on a course with the helm lashed. I was unaware that no other vessel had sailed in this manner round the globe but would have been loathed to say that another could not do it or that many men had not sailed vessels of a certain rig in that manner as far as they wished to go. I was greatly amused therefore by the flatter assertions of an expert that it could not be done. The Spray, as I sailed her, was entirely a new boat, built over from a sloop which bore the same name and which tradition said had first served as an oisterman about a hundred years ago on the coast of Delaware. There was no record in the custom-house of where she was built. She was once owned at Noenck, Connecticut afterward in New Bedford and when Captain Eben Pierce presented her to me at the end of her natural life, she stood as I have already described propped up in a field at Fairhaven. Her lines were supposed to be those of a North Sea fisherman. In rebuilding timber by timber and plank by plank I added to her freeboard twelve inches amidships, eighteen inches forward thereby increasing her shear and making her, as I thought, a better deep-water ship. I will not repeat the history of the rebuilding of the Spray which I have detailed in my first chapter, except to say that when finished her dimensions were thirty-six feet, nine inches overall, fourteen feet, two inches wide and four feet, two inches deep in the hold. Her tonnage being nine tons net and twelve and seventy-one hundredth tons gross. I gladly reproduced the lines of the Spray with such hints as my really limited fore-and-aft sailing will allow my seafaring life having been spent mostly in barks and ships. No pains have been spared to give them accuracy. The Spray was taken from New York to Bridgeport, Connecticut and under the supervision of the Park City Yacht Club was hauled out of water and very carefully measured in every way to secure a satisfactory result. Captain Robbins produced the model. Our young yachtsmen, pleasuring in the lilies of the sea very naturally will not think favorably of my craft. They have a right to their opinion while I stick to mine. They will take exception to her short ends, the advantage of these being apparent in a heavy sea. Some things about the Spray's deck might be fashioned differently without materially affecting the vessel. I know of no good reason why, for a party boat, a cabin trunk might not be built amid ships, instead of far aft, like the one on her which leaves a very narrow space between the wheel and the line of the companion-way. Some even say that I might have improved the shape of her stern. I do not know about that. The water leaves her run sharp after bearing her to the last inch and no suction is formed by undue cutaway. Smooth water sailors say where is her overhang? That he never crossed the Gulf stream in a nor'easter and they do not know what is best in all weathers. For your life build no fantail overhang on a craft going offshore. As a sailor judges his prospective ship by a blow of the eye when he takes interest enough to look her over at all, so I judged the spray and I was not deceived. In a sloop rig the spray made that part of her voyage reaching from Boston through the Strait of Magellan during which she experienced the greatest variety of weather conditions. The yule rig then adopted was an improvement only in that it reduced the size of a rather heavy mainsail and slightly improved her steering qualities on the wind. When the wind was aft the jigger was not in use invariably it was then furled. With her boom brought off and with the wind two points on the quarter the spray sailed her truest course. It never took long to find the amount of helm or angle of rudder required to hold her on her course and when that was found I lashed the wheel with it at that angle. The mainsail then drove her and the main jib with its sheet boused flat amidships or a little to one side or the other added greatly to the steadying power. Then if the wind was even strong or squally I would sometimes set a flying jib also on a pole rigged out on the bowsprit with the sheets hauled flat amidships which was a safe thing to do even in a gale of wind. A stout downhaul on the gaff was a necessity because without it the mainsail might not have come down when I wish to lower it in a breeze. The amount of helm required varied according to the amount of wind and its direction. These points are quickly gathered from practice. Briefly I have to say that when close hauled in a light wind under all sail she required little as the wind increased I would go on deck, if below and turn the wheel up a spoke more or less relash it or a sailor's say put it in a becket and then leave it as before. To answer the questions that might be asked to meet every contingency would be a pleasure but it would overburden my book. I can only say here that much comes to one in practice and that with such as love sailing mother wit is the best teacher after experience. Labour saving appliances there were none. The sails were hoisted by hand the hallyas were roved through ordinary ships blocks with common patent rollers. Of course the sheets were all belayed aft. The windlass used was in the shape of a winch or crab I think it is called. I had three anchors weighing 40 pounds, 100 pounds and 80 pounds respectively. The windlass and the 40 pound anchor and the fiddle head or carving on the end of the cut water belonged to the original spray. The ballast concrete cement was staunchened down securely. There was no iron or lead or other weight on the keel. If I took measurements by rule I did not set them down and after sailing even the longest I could not tell offhand the length of her mast, boom or gaff. I did not know the centre of effort in her sails except as it hit me in practice at sea, nor did I care a rope yarn about it. Mathematical calculations however are all right in a good boat and the spray could have stood them. She was easily balanced and easily kept in trim. Some of the oldest and ablest shipmasters have asked how it was possible for her to hold a true course before the wind which is just what the spray did for weeks together. One of these gentlemen a highly esteemed shipmaster and friend testified as government expert in a famous murder trial in Boston not long since that a ship would not hold her course long enough for the steersman to leave the helm to cut the captain's throat. Ordinarily one might say that with a square rigged ship it would always be so. But the spray at the moment of the tragedy in question was sailing around the globe with no one at the helm except at intervals more or less rare. However I may say here that this would have had no bearing on the murder case in Boston in all probability justice laid her hand on the true rogue. In other words the model and rig similar to that of the tragedy ship I should myself testify as the nautical experts at the trial. But see the run the spray made from Thursday Island to the Keeling Cocos Island 2700 miles distant in 23 days with no one at the helm at that time save for about an hour from land to land. No other ship in the history of the world ever performed in circumstances the feet on so long and continuous a voyage. It was however a delightful Midsummer sail. No one can know the pleasure of sailing free over the great oceans save those who have had the experience. It is not necessary in order to realize the utmost enjoyment of going around the globe to sail alone yet for once and the first time there was a great deal of fun in it. My friend the government expert and saltiest of salt sea captains standing only yesterday on the deck of the spray was convinced of her famous qualities and he spoke enthusiastically of selling his farm on Cape Cod and putting to sea again. To young men contemplating a voyage I would say go. The tales of rough usage are for the most part exaggerations as also are the stories of sea danger. I had a fair schooling in the so-called hard ships on the hard western ocean and in the years there I do not remember having once been called out of my name. Such recollections have endeared the sea to me. I owe it further to the officers of all the ships I have sailed in as boy and man to say that not one ever lifted so much as a finger to me. I live among angels but among men who could be roused. My wish was though to please the officers of my ship wherever I was and so I got on. Dangers there are to be sure on the sea as well as on the land but the intelligence and skill God gives to man reduce these to a minimum and here comes in again the skillfully modelled ship worthy to sail the seas. To face the elements is to be sure no light matter when the sea is in its grandest mood. You must then know the sea and know that you know it and not forget that it was made to be sailed over. I have given in the plans of the spray the dimensions of such a ship as I should call sea worthy in all conditions of weather and on all seas. It is only right to say though that to ensure a reasonable measure experience should sail with the ship but in order to be a successful navigator or sailor it is not necessary to hang a tar bucket round one's neck. On the other hand much thought concerning the brass buttons one should wear adds nothing to the safety of the ship. I may some day see reason to modify the model of the dear old spray but out of my limited experience I strongly recommend her wholesome lines over those of pleasure flyers for safety. Practice in a craft such as the spray will teach young sailors and fit them for the more important vessels. I myself learned more seamanship I think on the spray than on any other ship I ever sailed and as for patience the greatest of all the virtues even while sailing through the reaches of the Strait of Magellan between the Bluff Mainland and Dismofuego where through intricate sailing I was obliged to steer I learned to sit by the wheel content to make ten miles a day beating against the tide and when a month at that was all lost I could find some old tune to hum while I worked the route all over again beating as before. Nor did thirty hours at the wheel in storm overtax my human endurance and to clap a hand to an oar and pull into or out of port in a calm was no strange experience for the crew of the spray. The days passed happily with me wherever my ship sailed end of appendix and end of sailing alone around the world by Joshua Slocum Recording by Alan Chant in Tumbridge, Kent, England during the early summer of 2007 www.sevenoaksprep.kent.sh.uk The recordings of herring-gulls used in these readings are in the public domain. They may be found at www.pdsounds.org The gulls were recorded by Tony Phillips near where Joshua Slocum built the spray only one hundred years later.