Joshua Slocum

Born in Wilmot, Nova Scotia[?], he was the first man to sail single handed around the world.

Slocum started sailing at 16 and spent most of his life at sea. On April 24, 1895, in a rebuilt 36-foot 9-inch (11.1-metre) fishing boat named "Spray," he set sail from Boston, Massachusetts. More than three years later, he returned to Newport, Rhode Island on June 27, 1898 having circumnavigated the world, a distance of 46,000 miles (74,000 km).

In 1899 he wrote his classic: Sailing Alone Around the World.

In 1909 he was was lost at sea, apparently the victim of a collision and in 1924 he was declared legally dead.

External Link

• the e-text of Slocum's Sailing Alone Around The World (http://www.abacci.com/books/book.asp?bookID=2379)