Sailing Alone Around the World (Adlard Coles Maritime Classics)

Description

Beautifully produced, with a Foreword by Dame Ellen MacArthur, specially commissioned maps and atmospheric line drawings, this is a classic edition of one of the greatest sea adventures of all time. Joshua Slocum's epic solo voyage around the world in 1895 aboard the 37 foot sloop Spray remains one of the major feats of singlehanded voyaging, and has since been the inspiration for the many who have gone to sea in small boats. Starting from Boston in 1895, by the time he dropped anchor in Newport, Rhode Island over three years after his journey began, he had cruised some 46,000 miles entirely by sail and entirely alone. With none of the advantages of modern technology, Slocum faced fog, gales, gear failure, coral reefs and attacks by pirates. He also devised his own system of lashing the wheel into an early version of the modern day autopilot, which enabled him to sail 2,000 miles across the Pacific without once touching the helm. Slocum published his account of the voyage in 1900, and the book was an immediate success. Sailing Alone Around the World is a classic of sailing literature, acclaimed as an unequalled masterpiece of vital yet disciplined prose. It will be welcomed by all admirers of his legendary achievement.

Joshua Slocum became a legend by being the first person to sail around the globe alone in 1895 in a 37-foot sloop, Spray, that he rebuilt himself from a derelict oyster sloop. He is possibly the best known single-handed sailor ever to have lived. Dame Ellen MacArthur was the youngest person ever to complete the Vendee Globe, and in 2005 broke the record for the fastest solo circumnavigation of the globe. She was described by the Observer as 'The first true heroine of the 21st Century' and has been named Sailor of the Year twice.

Yes, Slocum's journey was 'epic' but it was also eccentric, unlikely and his unsurpassable action elegiac...The unaffected and quirky intimacy with which he writes will never be matched. You cannot do what he did any more. * Matthew Parris * Boys who do not like this book ought to be drowned at once. * Arthur Ransome * One of the best sea-themed reads. * Daily Telegraph * It is riveting stuff... A great read. * The Nautical Magazine * One of the all-time classic sailing narratives. * Classic Boat *