Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
field, becoming something of a local joke. Pierce's comment that 'she
wants some repairs' was a historic understatement. If she was ever
to see salt water again the
Spray
needed to be completely rebuilt.
Slocum looked at the sad old ship and made an incredible decision:
not only would he restore her to her former glory; he would sail her
round the world.
What motives lay behind the formulating of this remarkable vis-
ion? On this Slocum was strangely reticent. He passed off his in-
tention to rescue a decaying vessel and attempt to achieve in her
something that had never been done before as though it were the
most unremarkable thing in the world: 'the voyage . . . was a natural
outcome not only of my love of adventure, but of my lifelong exper-
gantic gesture of defiance? Was Slocum, on the very threshold of a
new century, with its throbbing steam engines and turbines, making
a statement in vindication of old ships, old shipmen, old ways, and
the old understanding between mariner and ocean? Once, in mid-
Atlantic,
Spray
was hailed by the liner
Olympia.
Slocum noted, with
scant approval, that her captain was young, and he expressed the
hope that man and ship were a match for the sea. 'There were no
porpoises skipping along with the
Olympia
,' he observed. 'Porpoises
always prefer sailing ships.'
7
Slocum rebuilt his sloop from the keel up. It took him thirteen
months and cost $553.62, some of which money he earned doing
occasional work in a whaleship fitting yard. As the result of his la-
bours the owner-shipwright-captain had a vessel thirty-six feet nine
inches overall and fourteen feet, two inches in the beam. She car-
ried a yawl-rigged mainsail, a jib and flying jib, in addition to which
an aft sail could be hoisted on a removable jigger mast. She was de-
signed for solidity and ease of handling rather than for grace; for re-
liability rather than speed. She bore more resemblance to a North
Sea trawler than to any of the fashionable yachts of the day, and she
