Around the world in the sloop Spray

Front matter

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Preface

It was my good fortune, a short time ago, to be invited to the School of Pedagogy, in New York, to meet Dr. Edward R. Shaw. Dr. Shaw was in the midst of a lecture when I entered the room, reading from a famous book of the sea that he had edited for school uses. From this he turned to " Sailing Alone Around the World," which, to my surprise and delight, he quoted off the reel.

Here I met a large-hearted man at the right moment. He read my mind, or how else could he perceive my desire to see the story of the Spray s voyage still more useful ?

" With the leave of your publishers," said Dr. Shaw, "I will make the story of the Sprays voyage adaptable to school uses and will do it at once. Then we shall have a story of adventure and a lesson in geography all in one."

Under his practical direction and with the kind permission of The Century Company this abridgment of ** Sailing Alone Around the vi Preface

World " has been prepared. Whatever value it may have as a supplementary geographical reader is due to my friend, Dr. Shaw, whom, to my misfortune, I had found but to lose by his death.

In launching the new literary packet I desire to commend it especially to the indulgence of children around and all over the world.

J. s.

Chapter I Pagb

A blue-nose ancestry with Yankee proclivities — Youthful fondness for the sea — Master of the ship Northern Light — Loss of the Aquidneck — The gift of a ** ship "—The rebuilding of the Spray — Conundrums in regard to finance and calking — The launching of the Spray — A voyage around the world projected 3

Chapter V

Sailing from Gibraltar with the assistance of her Majesty's tug — The Sprafs course changed from the Suez Canal to the Cape of Good Hope — A brush with pirates — A fortunate escape — Passing the Canary Islands — At the mercy of an African harmattan — The Cape Verde Islands — Arrival at Pernambuco ......... 47 viii Contents

Chapter VI Page

Departure from Rio de Janeiro — The Spray ashore on the sands of Uruguay — The boy who found a sloop — The Spray floated — Courtesies from the British Consul at Maldonado — A warm greeting at Montevideo — A pleasant stay in Buenos Aires 6i

Chapter VII

Weighing anchor at Buenos Aires — The Spray submerged by a great wave— Fine weather — A stormy entrance to the Strait of Magellan— Captain Samblich's happy gift of a bag of carpet-tacks — Experience with williwaws — Oil Cape Froward — Pursued by Fuegian Indians In Fortescue Bay — Towed by a Chilian gunboat — Animal life in the Strait . 73

Chapter VIII

From Cape Pillar into the Pacific — In the grasp of a Cape Horn tempest — Captain Slocum's greatest sea adventure — Reaching the Strait again by way of Cockburn Channel — The savages learn the use of carpet-tacks — A series of fierce williwaws — Again sailing westward . . . , .89

Chapter IX

Repairing the Spray^s sails — Savages again — An obstreperous anchor — An encounter with Black Pedro — A visit to the steamship Colombia — On the defensive against a fleet of canoes — A record of voyages through the strait . . . loi

Chapter X

Running to Port Angosto in a snow-storm — A defective sheet-rope places the Spray in peril — The Spray as a target for a Fuegian arrow— The island of Allan Eric — Again in the open Pacific — The run to. the island of Juan Fernandez —An absentee king— At Robinson Crusoe's anchorage . • 115

Contents ix

Chapter XI Page

The islanders at Juan Fernandez entertained with Yankee doughnuts — The beauties of Robinson Crusoe's realm — The mountain monument to Alexander Selkirk — A stroll with the children of the island— Westward ho ! with a friendly gale — A month's free sailing with the Southern Cross and the sun for guides—Sighting the Marquesas — Experience in reckoning .......... 124

Chapter XII

Seventy-two days without a port — Whales and birds — A peep into the Spray^s galley — Flying-fish for breakfast — A welcome at Apia — A visit from Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson ........... 132

Chapter XIII

Good-by to friends at Vailima — The yachts of Sydney — A ducking on the Spray — Commodore Foy presents the sloop with a new suit of sails — On to Melbourne — A shark that proved to be valuable — A change of course . . . 136

Chapter XIV

Cruising round Tasmania — An inspection of the Spray for safety at Devonport — Again at Sydney — Northward bound for Torres Strait — An amateur shipwreck — Friends on the Australian coast — Perils of a coral sea . . . "147

Chapter XV

Arrival at Port Denison, Queensland — A happy escape from a coral reef — An American pearl -fisher man — ^Jubilee at Thursday Island — Sailing in the Arafura Sea — Specimen pages from the Spray^s log — Across the Indian Ocean — Christmas Island , , , , , , , .156

X Contents

Chapter XVI Page

Three hours' steering in twenty-three days — Arrival at the Keeling Cocos Islands — A curious chapter of social history — A welcome from the children of the islands — Cleaning and painting the Spray on the beach — A Mohammedan blessing for a pot of jam — Keeling as a paradise — A risky adventure in a small boat — Away to Rodriguez — Taken for Antichrist — The governor calms the fears of the people — A lecture — A convent in the hills . . . . . .164

Chapter XVII

A clean bill of health at Mauritius — A newly discovered plant named in honor of the Sprafs skipper — A bivouac on deck — A warm reception at Durban — Three wise Boers seek proof of the flatness of the earth — Leaving South Africa . 175

Chapter XVIII

Rounding the ** Cape of Storms " in olden time — A rough Christmas — The Spray ties up for a three months' rest at Cape Town — A railway trip to the Transvaal — President Kruger's odd definition of the Spray^s voyage — His terse sayings — Distinguished guests on the Spray — Cocoanut fibre as a padlock — Courtesies from the admiral of the Queen's navy — Off for St. Helena — Land in sight . . . .184

Chapter XIX

In the isle of Napoleon's exile — A guest in the ghost-room at Plantation House — An excursion to historic Longwood — Coffee in the husk, and a goat to shell it — The Spray^s ill-luck with animals — Ascension Island . . . 193

Chapter XX

In the favoring current off Cape St. Roque, Brazil — All at sea regarding the Spanish- American War — An exchange of signals with the battle-ship Oregon — Off Dreyfus's

Contents xi

PAGE

prison on Devil's Island — Reappearance to the Spray of the north star — The light on Trinidad — A charming introduction to Grenada — Talks to friendly auditors .... 200

Chapter XXI

Clearing for home — In the calm belt — A sea covered with sargasso — The jibstay parts in a gale — Welcomed by a tornado off Fire Island — A change of plan — Arrival at Newport — End of a cruise of over forty- six thousand miles — The Spray again at Fairhaven 208

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Captain SlOCUM Frontispiece

FACING PAGE

Plan of the After Cabin of the Spray ■. . 8

** It'll crawl!" . 12

The Spray at Anchor off Gibraltar ... 42

A Double Surprise 66 ^

Salving Wreckage 112

A Brush with Fuegians 118 /

Stevenson's House at Vailima 134 -^

The Shark on the Deck of the Spray . .144 The Spray 150

From a photograph taken in Australian waters.

Captain Slocum, Sir Alfred Milner (with the tall hat), and Colonel Sanderson, M.P., ON THE Bow of the Spray, at Cape Town 188 The Spra f in a Storm off New York . . .212 Map showing the Sprays Course At end of volume ^

ZUl

AROUND THE WORLD IN THE SLOOP SPRAY fl

Chapter I

A blue-nose ancestry with Yankee proclivities — Youthful fondness for the sea — Master of the ship Northern Light — Loss of the Aquidneck — The gift of a " ship " — The rebuilding of the Spray — Conundrums in regard to finance and calking — The launching of the Spray — A voyage around the world projected.

In the fair land of Nova Scotia, a maritime province, there is a ridge called North Mountain, overlooking the Bay of Fundy on one side and the fertile Annapolis valley on the other. On the northern slope of the range grows the hardy spruce-tree, well adapted for ship-timbers, of which many vessels of all classes have been built. The people of this coast, hardy, robust, and strong, are disposed to compete in the world's commerce, and it is nothing against the master mariner if the birthplace mentioned on his certificate is Nova Scotia. I was born in a cold spot, on coldest North Mountain, on a cold February 20, though I am a citizen of the United States — a naturalized Yankee, if it may be said that Nova Scotians are not Yankees in the truest sense of the word. On both sides my family were sailors; and if any Slocum should be found not seafaring, he will show at least an inclination to whittle models of boats and dream of voyages.

As for myself, the wonderful sea charmed me from the first. At the age of eight I had already been afloat along with other boys on the bay, with chances greatly in favor of being drowned. We knew nothing about the ebb and flow of the tides, but sailed out joyously on a current that drifted us down the bay. A long way down we managed in some way to land, and a farmer seeing us very kindly yoked his oxen to our boat and hauled it out of the tide-way, for it was found that we could not row back against the strong ebb tide. As we returned home through the fields we saw the shore laid bare for a great distance. It was a real adventure and here I picked up my first sea-shell. As the tide ebbed I wondered where the water all went and if the bay would run dry ; since that time, and farther up the Bay of Fiindy, I have seen the "- flats," at low water, dry for the space of many square miles. Here the tide sometimes rises and falls seventy feet, and the flood comes up the bay so rapidl}^ that it forms a wall of water as it advances, called a bore.

171 the Sloop ''Spray'' 5

I never got away from the sound of the inspiring- sea.

When a lad I filled the post of cook on a fishing-schooner ; but I was not long in the galley, for the crew mutinied at the appearance of my first duff, and threw me out of that before I had a chance to shine among pots and pans. The next step toward the goal of happiness found me before the mast in a full-rigged ship, along with a boy neighbor of my own age for " chum," bound on a foreign voyage. Here I got my first taste of the roughest side of sea life. The crew, I thought, was a very rough one, and I did not find out that the captain was a kind man, at heart, till I fell ill and wanted a friend.

As for the mate of the ship, he roared like a lion whenever he appeared, and we jumped at the sound of his voice. The second mate, however, was lax in discipline, and there was greater safety for the ship and all hands when the first mate was on deck, as, for all his sternness, he was a kind man at heart.

The voyage began at St. John, N. B., and my " chum " and I, before the ship cleared Partridge Island, had won records as the only members of the crew, save one, sufficiently sober to take the helm. Our coming on board was a serious business and we meant it.

My friend and I joined the ship from a small fishing-schooner and had hardly seen a case of drunkenness in our lives.

Nothing- could have been more revolting than the condition of the men we were to sail with.

The captain and his mate were on deck all night, and with the two fisher boys, ourselves, at the helm took the ship out of the Bay and down by the Menan Islands past rocks and ledges to port and starboard in a thick fog. The palm was ours from that moment and was easily held.

It was one of my proudest moments when the Irish pilot who boarded us off Dublin, where the ship was bound, called for a man who could steer her '' decently into port," and the mate sent me to the helm, my chum being in the second mate's watch, then off duty.

I could not have succeeded better in any ship, after all, and I spent four years in succession, now in one ship and now in another, sailing the Atlantic Ocean to my heart's content. I came "over the bows," and not in through the cabin windows, to the command of a ship.

My best command was that of the magnificent ship Northern Light, of which I was part owner. I had a right to be proud of her, for at that time — in the eighties — she was one of the finest vessels afloat. I sailed her to China and Japan, to the Philippine Islands and to Liverpool and New York.

The cares of a shipmaster are not a few, still responsibilities did not weigh on me and I had success. Above all I have it to say that in command twenty and odd years I never lost a man at sea. After commanding the Northern Light I owned and sailed the Aquidneck, a little bark which of all man's handiwork seemed to me the nearest to perfection of beauty, and which in speed, when the wind blew, asked no favors of steamers. I had been nearly twenty years a shipmaster when I quit her deck on the coast of Brazil, where she was wrecked.

My voyages were all foreign. I sailed as freighter and trader principally to China, Australia, and Japan, and among the Spice Islands. For a number of years San Francisco was my home port, to which I occasionally returned. Mine was not the sort of life to make one long to retire to the land, the customs and ways of which I had finally almost forgotten. And so when times for freighters got bad, as at last they did, and I tried to quit the sea, what was there for an old sailor to do ? I was born in the breezes, and I had studied the sea as perhaps few men have studied it, neglecting all else. Next in attractiveness, after seafaring, came ship-building. I longed to be master in both professions, and in a small way, in time, I accomplished my desire. From the decks of stout ships in the worst gales I had made calculations as to the size and sort of ship safest for all weather and all seas. Thus the voyage which I am now to narrate was a natural outcome not only of my love of adventure, but of my lifelong experience.

One midwinter day of 1892, in Boston, as I was thinking whether I should apply for a command, and again eat my bread and butter on the sea, or go to work at the shipyard, I met an old acquaintance, a whaling-captain, who said: "Come to Fairhaven and I'll give you a ship. But," he added, '' she needs some repairs." The captain's terms, when fully explained, were more than satisfactory to me. They included all the help I would require to fit the craft for sea. I was only too glad to accept, for I had already found that I could not obtain work in the shipyard near my home without first paying fifty dollars to a society, and as for a ship to command — there were not enough ships to go

Otrt (SO

Cn.TVj'ovrr.i; Xif.tin the Sloop ''Spray''' g

round. Nearly all our tall vessels had been cut down for coal-barges, and were being towed by the nose from port to port, while many worthy captains had betaken themselves to Sailors' Snug Harbor, there to end their days.

The next day I landed at Fairhaven, opposite New Bedford, and found that my friend had something of a joke on me. For seven years the joke had been on him. The " ship " proved to be a very old sloop called the Spray, which the neighbors declared had been built in the year 1. She was propped up in a field, some distance from salt water, and was covered with canvas. The people of Fairhaven, I hardly need say, are thrifty and observant. For seven years they had asked, *' I wonder what Captain Pierce is going to do with the old Spray?'' The day I appeared there was talk on every hand ; at last someone had come and was actually at work on the old Spray. " Breaking her up, I suppose ? " it was asked. " No ; going to rebuild her," was the reply. Great was the amazement. " Will it pay? " was the question which for a year or more I answered by declaring that I would make it pay.

My ax felled a stout oak-tree near by for a keel, and Farmer Howard, for a small sum of money, hauled in this and enough timbers for lO Around the World

the frame of the new vessel. I fitted up a steambox and a pot for a boiler. The timbers for ribs, being straight saplings, were dressed and steamed till supple, and then bent over a log, where they were secured till set. Something tangible appeared every day to show for my labor, and the neighbors made the work sociable. It was a great day in the Spray shipyard when her new stem was set up and fastened to the new keel. Whaling-captains came from far to survey it. With one voice they pronounced it "A 1," and in their opinion "strong enough to smash ice." The oldest captain shook my hand warmly when the, breast-hooks were put in, declaring that he could see no reason why the Spray should not capture whales yet off the coast of Greenland. The much-esteemed stempiece was from the butt of the toughest kind of a pasture oak. Better timber for a ship than this pasture white oak never grew. The breast-hooks, as well as all the ribs, were of this wood, and were steamed and bent into shape as required. It was hard upon March when I began work in earnest ; the weather w^as cold ; still, there were plenty of inspectors about to give me advice.

The seasons came quickly while I worked. Hardly were the ribs of the sloop up before in the Sloop ''Spray'' ii

apple-trees were in bloom. The daisies and the cherries came soon after. From the deck of the new craft I could put out my hand and pick cherries. The planks for the new vessel, which I soon came to put on, were of Georgia pine, an inch and a half thick. The operation of putting- them on was tedious, but it was my purpose to make my vessel stout and strong.

Now, it is a law in Lloyd's that a vessel repaired all out of the old until she is entirely new is still the same vessel. The Spray changed her being so gradually that it was hard to say at what point the old died or the new took birth, and it was no matter, for she was still the Spray. There was one deck-inclosure over the opening of the main hatch, six feet by six, for a cooking-galley, and another farther aft, about ten feet by twelve, for a cabin. Both of these rose about three feet above the deck, and were sunk sufficiently into the hold to afford headroom. In the spaces along the sides of the cabin, under the deck, I arranged a berth to sleep in, and shelves for small storage, not forgetting a place for the medicine-chest. In the midship-hold, that is, the space between cabin and galley, under the deck, was room for provision of water, salt beef, etc., ample for many months.

The hull of my vessel being now put together as strongly as wood and iron could make her, and the various rooms partitioned off, I set about calking the seams. When the calking was finished, two coats of copper paint were put on the bottom, two of white lead on the topsides and bulwarks. The rudder was then shipped and painted, and on the following day the Spray was launched. As she rode at her ancient, rust-eaten anchor, she sat on the water like a swan.

The Spray s dimensions were, when finished, thirty-six feet nine inches long, over all, 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 hundredths tons gross.

Then the mast, a New Hampshire black spruce, was fitted, and the rigging necessary for a short cruise. Sails were bent, and away she flew with my friend Captain Pierce, who had given the promised assistance, and me, across Buzzard's Bay on a trial-trip — all right. The only thing that now worried my friends along the beach w^as, " Will she pay ? " The cost of my new vessel was $553.62 for materials, and thirteen months of my own labor. I was several months more than that at Fairhaven, for I got work now and then farther down the harbor, on whale-ships fitting out for sea, and that kept me the overtime. At this port I did not have to pay for the privilege of working in a shipyard.

I spent a season in my new craft fishing on the coast, but with little success, and the boast that I would " make it pay," at least in this enterprise, became a problem with me. I was unfitted for even this rough industry ; conditions had changed since the day when I was a lad hauling cod, and I had myself changed.

I reeled up my lines with a sense of one more defeat, but with no feeling that I should become a hulk. I decided, instead, on the one enterprise, still within my reach, which would be the most gratifying and profitable to me, and this was a voyage alone around the world. I should, on such a cruise as this, gain a better knowledge of our planet and of the peoples I would meet. With these fascinating impressions fixed firmly upon my mind I moored the Spray in winter quarters in Boston, and little by little, while there, I fitted for the voyage. All alone I would at least contemplate the wide, wide sea.

Chapter II

The start — From Boston to Gloucester — Refitting for the voyage — Along the Maine Coast — Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.

At last the time arrived to set out, and on the morning of April 24, 1895, as the wind was fair, at noon I weighed anchor, set sail, and filled away. The twelve-o'clock whistles were blowing just as the sloop shot ahead under full sail. A short stretch was made up the harbor on the port tack, then coming about she stood seaward, with her boom well off to port, and swung past the ferries with lively heels, her flag at the peak throwing its folds clear. A thrilling pulse beat high in me. My step was light on deck in the crisp air. I felt that there could be no turning back, and that I was engaging in an adventure the meaning of which I thoroughly understood. I had taken little advice from anyone, for I had a right to my own opinions in matters pertaining to the sea. That the best of sailors might do worse than even I alone was impressed upon me not a league from Boston docks, where a great steamship, fully manned, officered, and piloted, lay stranded and broken. She was broken completely in two over a ledge. So in the first hour of my lone voyage I had proof that the Spray could at least do better than this fullhanded steamship, for I was already farther on my voyage than she and had abundance of energy to go on. " Take warning, Spray, and have a care still," I uttered aloud to my bark.

The wind freshened, and the Spray rounded Deer Island light at the rate of seven knots.

The day was perfect, the sunlight clear and strong. Every particle of water thrown into the air became a gem, and the Spray, bounding ahead, snatched necklace after necklace from the sea, and as often threw them away. We have all seen miniature rainbows about a ship's prow, but the Spray flung out a bow of her own that day, such as I had never seen before. Her good angel had embarked on the voyage ; I so read it in the sea.

Bold Nahant was soon abeam, then Marblehead was put astern. Other vessels were outward bound, but none of them passed the Spray flying along on her course. I heard the clanking of the dismal bell on Norman's Woe as we went by ; and the reef where the schooner Hesperus"^ struck I passed close aboard. The

* See Longfellow's poem.

"bones'* of a wreck tossed up lay bleaching on the shore abreast. The wind still freshening, I partly lowered the mainsail to ease the sloop's helm, for I could hardly hold her before it with the whole mainsail set. A schooner ahead of me lowered all sail and ran into port under bare poles, the wind being fair. As the Spray brushed by the stranger, I saw that some of his sails were gone, and much broken canvas hung in his rigging, from the effects of a squall.

I made for the cove, a lovely branch of Gloucester's fine harbor, again to look the Spray over and again to weigh the voyage and my feelings. The bay was feather- white as my little vessel tore in, smothered in foam. It was my first experience of coming into port alone, with a craft of any size, and in among shipping. Old fishermen ran down to the wharf for which the Spray was heading, thinking she would strike it and stave her bows in. I hardly know how a calamity was averted, but with my heart in my mouth, almost, I let go the wheel, stepped quickly forward, and hauled down the jib. The sloop naturally rounded into the wind, and shooting ahead just a little, laid her cheek against a mooring-pile at the windward corner of the wharf, so quietly, after all, that she would not have broken an ^^z- Very leisurely

I passed a rope around the post, and she was moored. Then a cheer came to me from the little crowd on the wharf. ^' You could n't have done it better," cried an old skipper, ''if you weighed a ton ! "

I remained in Gloucester about two weeks, fitting out with the various articles for the voyage most readily obtained there. The owners of the wharf where I lay, and of many fishing-vessels, put on board a great quantity of dry codfish and also a barrel of oil to calm the waves. They were old skippers themselves, and took a great interest in the voyage. They also made the Spray a present of a " fisherman's own " lantern, which I found would throw light a great distance round. Indeed, a ship that would run another down having such a good light aboard would be capable of running into a light-ship.

For a boat to take along, I made shift to cut a castaway dory in two athwartships, boarding up the end where it was cut. This half-dory I could hoist in and out easily. A whole dory would be heavy and awkward to handle alone. Manifestly there was not room on deck for more than the half of this boat, which, after all, was better than no boat at all, and was large enough for one man. I perceived, moreover, that this newly arranged craft would answer for a washing-machine when placed athwartships on deck, and also for a bath-tub.

The want of a chronometer for the voyage was all that now worried me. In our modern notions of navigation it is supposed that a mariner cannot find his way without one ; and I had myself drifted into this way of thinking. My old chronometer, a good one, had been long in disuse. It would cost fifteen dollars to clean and rate it. Fifteen dollars ! For sufficient reasons I left that timepiece at home. I had the great lantern, and a lady in Boston sent me the price of a large two-burner cabin lamp, which lighted the cabin at night, and by some small contriving served for a stove through the day.

Being thus refitted I was once more ready for sea, and on May 7 the Spray was again under way.