41 Facts About Joshua Slocum

Joshua Slocum was the first person to sail single-handedly around the world.

Joshua Slocum was a Nova Scotian-born, naturalised American seaman and adventurer, and a noted writer.

Joshua Slocum disappeared in November 1909 while aboard his boat, the Spray.

Joshua Slocum was born on February 20,1844, in Mount Hanley, Annapolis County, Nova Scotia, a community on the North Mountain within sight of the Bay of Fundy.

The fifth of eleven children of John Slocomb and Sarah Jane Slocombe nee Southern, Joshua descended, on his father's side, from a Quaker known as "John the Exile", who left the United States shortly after 1780 because of his opposition to the American War for Independence.

Joshua Slocum was born in the family's farmhouse in Mount Hanley and learned to read and write at the nearby Mount Hanley School.

When Joshua Slocum was eight years old, the Slocomb family moved from Mount Hanley to Brier Island in Digby County, at the mouth of the Bay of Fundy.

Joshua Slocum yearned for a life of adventure at sea, away from his demanding father and his increasingly chaotic life at home among so many brothers and sisters.

Joshua Slocum made several attempts to run away from home, finally succeeding, at age fourteen, by hiring on as a cabin boy and cook on a fishing schooner, but he soon returned home.

Joshua Slocum quickly rose through the ranks to become a Chief Mate on British ships transporting coal and grain between the British Isles and San Francisco.

Joshua Slocum sailed for thirteen years out of the port of San Francisco, transporting mixed cargo to China, Australia, the Spice Islands, and Japan.

Joshua Slocum sailed with Slocum, and, over the next thirteen years, the couple had seven children, all born at sea or foreign ports.

The owners of the shipping company that had employed Joshua Slocum were so impressed by this feat of ingenuity and leadership, they gave him the command of the Constitution which he sailed to Hawaii and the west coast of Mexico.

The Joshua Slocum family continued on their next ship, the 326-ton Aquidneck.

In 1886, at age 42, Joshua Slocum married his 24-year-old cousin, Henrietta "Hettie" Elliott.

Later, Joshua Slocum was forced to defend his ship from pirates, one of whom he shot and killed; following which he was tried and acquitted of murder.

Joshua Slocum used local materials, salvaged materials from the Aquidneck, and worked with local workers.

In 1890, Joshua Slocum published his accounts of these adventures in Voyage of the Liberdade.

Joshua Slocum agreed to a request by the Brazilian government to deliver the Destroyer to Pernambuco, Brazil, with financial and vindictive motives.

Joshua Slocum it was, who in that ship expelled my bark, the Aquidneck, from Ilha Grande some years ago, under the cowardly pretext that we might have sickness on board.

Joshua Slocum intended sailing eastward around the world, using the Suez Canal, but when he got near Gibraltar he realized that sailing through the southern Mediterranean would be too dangerous for a lone sailor because piracy was still prevalent there at the time.

Joshua Slocum headed to Brazil, and then to the Straits of Magellan.

Joshua Slocum navigated without a chronometer, instead relying on the traditional method of dead reckoning to establish longitude, which required only a cheap tin clock for approximate time, and used noon-sun sights for latitude.

Joshua Slocum sailed 2,000 miles west across the Indian Ocean without once touching the helm.

Joshua Slocum's book deal was an integral part of his journey.

Joshua Slocum's publisher had provided Slocum with an extensive on-board library, and Slocum wrote several letters to his editor from distant points around the globe.

Joshua Slocum's Sailing Alone won him widespread fame in the English-speaking world, and he was one of eight invited speakers at a dinner in honor of Mark Twain in December 1900.

Joshua Slocum hauled the Spray up the Erie Canal to Buffalo, New York, for the Pan-American Exposition in the summer of 1901, and he was well compensated for participating in the fair.

Joshua Slocum spent little time with his wife on Martha's Vineyard and preferred life aboard the Spray, usually wintering in the Caribbean.

Joshua Slocum pleaded no contest to the reduced charge of indecent exposure and spent over a month in jail.

The President's young son, Archie, along with a guardian, spent the next few days sailing with Joshua Slocum up to Newport aboard the Spray, which, by then, was a decrepit, weather-worn vessel.

Joshua Slocum again met with President Roosevelt in May 1907, this time at the White House in Washington.

Joshua Slocum prepared to sell his farm on Martha's Vineyard and began to make plans for a new adventure in South America.

On November 14,1909, Joshua Slocum set sail in the Spray from Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts, for the West Indies on one of his usual winter voyages.

Joshua Slocum had expressed interest in starting his next adventure, exploring the Orinoco, Rio Negro and Amazon Rivers.

The Joshua Slocum was featured in the film version of Dolores Claiborne.

In 2009, a Joshua Slocum glider, modified by Rutgers University, crossed the Atlantic in 221 days.

Joshua Slocum is commemorated in museum exhibits at the New Bedford Whaling Museum in Massachusetts, the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and the Mount Hanley Schoolhouse Museum near his birthplace.

The Joshua Slocum River in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, was named for him, as was a newly discovered plant in Mauritius while he was there: "Returning to the Spray by way of the great flower conservatory near Moka, the proprietor, having only that morning discovered a new and hardy plant, to my great honor named it 'Joshua Slocum'".

Joshua Slocum himself discovered an island by accident, and named it Alan Erric Island.

Joshua Slocum was inducted into the National Sailing Hall of Fame in 2011.