Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
breathtaking. Only a mariner fully conversant with the world's tides,
winds and currents could have calmly made such a radical change to
well-laid plans. The course he now followed was to be very similar
to that taken by the first circumnavigator of all, 370 years before.
Recrossing the Atlantic, Spray came to Brazil on 5 October,
where her owner had many nautical friends and business contacts,
thanks to the years spent trading in and out of South American ports.
Indeed, it seems that Slocum was a stranger in very few of the places
he called at. Everywhere he went he was received hospitably and
usually found some sea captain, consul or factor to smooth his path
through local formalities. In Pernambuco it was Dr Perera, propriet-
or of El Commerciojornal , who entertained the wayfarer in his water-
front mansion and insisted on feeding him up for the voyage. Slocum,
like all brave men and women who attempt the 'impossible', was
heavily dependent on those who gave him encouragement and sup-
port. It was not just the practical assistance he valued. Even more
important were the assurances of goodwill that met him in every
port of call and the morale- boosting encomiums of those who told
him 'you can do it'. There were Jeremiahs in plenty who had told him
before he set out that he was crazy. Indeed, when he came to write
his account of the voyage, Slocum dedicated it, 'To the one * who said:
“The Spray will come back”.' Was there really only one? Something
armchair critics never realise is the effect their words have on ad-
venturers like Slocum. Perhaps it is because they look upon such
bold spirits as belonging to a different order of being, impervious to
such common afflictions as self-doubt and hesitancy. Slocum would
have agreed with Chichester: 'negative wishings and willings on the
part of different people use up valuable strength in resisting them,
just as prayer and positive wellwishing give strength, and lend sup-
port.' 13
Slocum made his way steadily southwards, planning to reach
the Straits of Magellan at the height of the southern summer. He
 
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