Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Slocum in another way: he had sold the last of his salvaged tallow to
a German trader there and was, as a result, well in funds.
After close on two months in Sydney, largely spent in social en-
gagements with old friends and smart members of the yacht club
who made a great fuss of the visiting celebrity, Slocum moved on to
Melbourne. Here he found, to his indignation, that the harbour au-
thorities charged him tonnage dues, something that had happened
in no other port except Pernambuco. The captain found himself out
of pocket to the tune of six shillings and sixpence. He lost no time in
recouping this sum from the citizens of Melbourne:
I squared the matter by charging people sixpence each for coming
on board, and when this business got dull I caught a shark and charged
them sixpence each to look at that. The shark was twelve feet six inches
in length, and carried a progeny of twenty-six, not one of them less
than two feet in length. A slit of a knife let them out in a canoe full of
water, which, changed constantly, kept them alive one whole day. In
less than an hour from the time I heard of the ugly brute it was on deck
and on exhibition, with rather more than the amount of the Spray's
tonnage dues already collected.
27
However, the traveller did not find all Australians mean. An an-
onymous lady sent him five pounds 'as a token of her appreciation of
his bravery in crossing the wide seas on so small a boat and all alone
without human sympathy to help when danger threatened'.
28
Once again Slocum found himself having to give the 'wide seas'
best. He had planned to travel south round Australia but foul weath-
er and ice drifting up from the Antarctic obliged him to go the other
way about the continent. He spent the rest of the summer on a pleas-
ant cruise round Tasmania and, on 9 May 1897, set sail once more
from Sydney.
