Sailing Alone Around the WorldDen første enmandssejlads jorden rundt i årene 1895-1898 |
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Common terms and phrases
abeam ahead anchorage arrived ashore astern Australia Azores berth blowing boat Boston breeze cabin canoe Cape Froward Cape Horn Cape Pillar Captain cast anchor clear coast Cooktown coral course cove craft crew cried danger deck Durban Fairhaven farther fish following day Fuegian gave Gibraltar governor hand harbor hauled head heard helm island Joshua Slocum Juan Fernandez Keeling Cocos knew land light mainsail mast Mauritius miles morning never night ocean once passed port reached reefs rigging rocks round SAIL-PLAN sailors Samoa Sandy Point savages seemed shark ship shore sight Slocum sloop soon Spray sailed Spray's squalls steamer steamship steering Stone Frigate stood storm Strait of Magellan Sydney Tasmania thing THOMAS FOGARTY thought Thursday Island Tierra del Fuego told took trade-winds vessel voyage waves weather whale williwaws yammerschooner
Popular passages
Page 141 - IN MEMORY OF ALEXANDER SELKIRK MARINER A native of Largo in the County of Fife, Scotland, who lived on this island in complete solitude for four years and four months. He was landed from the Cinque Ports galley, 96 tons, 18 guns, AD 1704, and was taken off in the Duke, privateer, 12th February, 1709.
Page 211 - July 17, 1897, twenty-three days from Thursday Island. The distance run was twentyseven hundred miles as the crow flies. This would have been a fair Atlantic voyage. It was a delightful sail! During those twentythree days I had not spent altogether more than three hours at the helm, including the time occupied in beating into Keeling harbor. I just lashed the helm and let her go; whether the wind was abeam or dead aft it was all the same : she always sailed on her course.
Page 243 - You don't mean round the world," said the president; " it is impossible ! You mean in the world. Impossible ! " he said, " impossible ! " and not another word did he utter either to the judge or to me.
Page 89 - I might expect to meet savages; but seeing no signs of life, I came to anchor in eight fathoms of water, where I lay all night under a high mountain. Here I had my first experience with the terrific squalls, called williwaws, which extended from this point on through the strait to the Pacific. They were compressed gales of wind that Boreas handed down over the hills in chunks. A full-blown williwaw will throw a ship, even without sail on, over on her beam ends; but, like other gales, they cease now...
Page 10 - 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 on an occasional whale-ship fitting farther down the harbor, and that kept me the overtime.
Page 38 - Since reaching the islands I had lived most luxuriously on fresh bread, butter, vegetables, and fruits of all kinds. Plums seemed the most plentiful on the Spray, and these I ate without stint. I had also a Pico white cheese that General Manning, the American consul-general, had given me, which I supposed was to be eaten, and of this I partook with the plums. Alas! by night-time I was doubled up with cramps. The wind, which was already a smart breeze, was increasing somewhat, with a heavy sky to...
Page 107 - The parting of a staysailsheet in a williwaw, when the sea was turbulent and she was plunging into the storm, brought me forward to see instantly a dark cliff ahead and breakers so close under the bows that I felt surely lost, and in my thoughts cried, "Is the hand of fate against me, after all, leading me in the end to this dark spot?" I sprang aft again, unheeding the flapping sail, and threw the wheel over, expecting, as the sloop came down into the hollow of a wave, to feel her timbers smash...
Page 102 - Under pressure of the smallest sail I could set she made for the land like a race-horse, and steering her over the crests of the waves so that she might not trip was nice work. I stood at the helm now and made the most of it. Night closed in before the sloop reached the land, leaving her feeling the way in pitchy darkness. I saw breakers ahead before long. At this I wore ship and stood offshore, but was immediately startled by the tremendous roaring of breakers again ahead and on the lee bow. This...
Page 39 - One may imagine my astonishment. His rig was that of a foreign sailor, and the large red cap he wore was cockbilled over his left ear, and all was set off with shaggy black whiskers. He would have been taken for a pirate in any part of the world. While I gazed upon his threatening aspect I forgot the storm, and wondered if he had come to cut my throat. This he seemed to divine. "Senor," said he, doffing his cap, "I have come to do you no harm.
Page 278 - At last she reached port in safety, and there at 1 am on June 27, 1898, cast anchor, after the cruise of more than forty-six thousand 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,