Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
At length it fell upon Spray in all its fury. Slocum lashed everything
down, took in all sail, put out a sea anchor and wedged himself into
his bunk. Spray lunged and bucked like a tethered colt. The wind
shrieked. Thunderbolts hurtled into the sea. When the storm had
passed, the sloop was still there. Wearily Slocum changed course and
made for the nearest anchorage on Long Island.
On 27 June 1898, at one o'clock in the morning, Joshua Slocum
brought his boat into Newport RI after a voyage of 46,000 miles. But
the voyage was not quite over:
I had myself a desire to return to the place of the very beginning .
. . So on July 3, with a fair wind, [Spray] waltzed beautifully round the
coast and up the Acushnet River to Fairhaven, where I secured her to
the cedar spile driven in the bank to hold her when she was launched.
I could bring her no nearer home. 35
What does a man do who has accomplished the ultimate in his
chosen sphere of endeavour? The experience inevitably leaves him
with empty horizons unless he can find some fresh challenge. For
Joshua Slocum there were months of acclaim and excitement. He re-
ceived a rapturous welcome. He wrote and published his account
of the voyage. He enjoyed the celebrity and the congratulations. He
gave lecture after lecture, until he grew tired of his own anecdotes.
Then, bit by bit, the excitement surrounding his great exploit died
down and left him just another man facing the prospect of old age.
That was a state of affairs he could not tolerate.
A modern psychiatrist, himself a yachtsman, has described the
category of sailor into which Joshua Slocum most assuredly fits as
one who has:
. . . a relationship with the sea that has a dominating effect on his
life . . . the relationship can be described in terms of a lifelong love af-
 
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