I’m still reading ‘around the world alone’ by Joshua Slocum. It is a good read but my eyes can’t cope in the poor light in the evenings even with the bed light on fullish (nor can my poor wife either!).
His voyages were amazing and there is a huge amount to glean from them – distances travelled; places visited; customs at the time; the whole process of maritime navigation in the late 1800’s; the role of empire and HM Navy; the bureaucracy of governing an empire; the protocols on entering and exiting ports; his impressions of different peoples he met; the old fashioned courtesies of the day. The list is endless and I may well come back at times and make comment on one or two aspects of the above without giving away the plot and main story lines – for it s a great read and I don’t wish to spoil it for others.
However, here are small snippets from the last couple of chapters I have been reading.....enjoy and marvel at how one man managed to sail this sloop singlehandedly!
“26th May 1897. Gloucester Island was close aboard and ‘Spray’ anchored in the evening at Port Denison, where rests on a hill, the sweet little town of Bowen, the future watering place and health resort of Queensland”
“The harbour was of easy approach, spacious and safe, and afforded excellent holding ground”
From Port Denison, Slocum ran ‘Spray ‘ before the constant trade winds non-stop up the coast to Cooktown, which lay on the Endeavour River, where she arrived Monday May 31st 1897. It took him five days.
“I’d been charged to navigate this route with extra care and to feel my way over the ground. A skilled Royal Navy officer who advised me to take the Barrier Reef passage wrote me that HMS Orlando steamed nights as well as days through it, but that I, under sail, would jeopardise my vessel on coral reefs if I undertook to do so”
So, using the very best of admiralty charts, Slocum used the fair winds and sailed through the Barrier Reef channel both day and night........”In all sincerity, it was clearer than a highway in a busy city and by all odds less dangerous”
He set sail again from Cooktown on June 6th 1897, heading away north as before. On the 7th he arrived at ‘a very inviting anchorage abreast the Claremont light ship’. On the 8th he departed again and kept sailing through the night passing the M lightship on the way but bouncing off a coral reef which fortunately did neither him or Spray any damage. Aiming for Cape Greenville, “the natives are notoriously bad and I was advised to give them the go-by”. [I’d just like to point out I am quoting Capt’n Joshua Slocum who passed Cape Greenville in 1897 and in no way am I casting any aspersions on the good people who live at Cape Greenville now – so if you hail from this place and are reading this blog post – I am sure you are all wonderful.....please don’t shout at me!]
Skipping along as Joshua puts it, he passed Home Island soon after midnight and squared away on a westerly course making for Sunday Island, then arriving at Bird Island on Wednesday 9th June 1897, where he came close to land, anchoring at 7.30pm in the company of a pearl fishing boat named the ‘Tarawa’. He stayed here for several days visiting out stations before making for Thursday Island and the Torres Strait which he arrived at shortly after noon on Thursday 24th June. [Which is at the tip of Queensland – wow!]
Now here he stayed for two days because it was the Queen’s (Victoria) diamond jubilee. He met people on the island and they had a party celebration which I share with you here in Joshua’s own words
“Meanwhile I spent pleasant days about the island. Mr Douglas, resident magistrate, invited me on a cruise in his steamer one day amongst the islands in Torres Strait. This being a scientific expedition in charge of Professor Mason Bailey, botanist, we rambled over Friday and Saturday islands, where I got a glimpse of botany. Miss Bailey, the professor’s daughter, accompanied the expedition, and told me of many indigenous plants with long names.”
It truly was a time of extraordinary exploration and learning wasn’t it; and actually for some women, an opportunity as well that would not be afforded them in society back in London. You can see where the roots of suffragette-ism may well have started – so many women across the empire doing extraordinary things in a time of male domination in all aspects of exploration, art, science and learning. But then I am not a historian and I may well have this completely wrong...any way Joshua continues......
“the 22nd was the great day on Thursday Island, for then we not only had the Jubilee, but a Jubilee with a grand Corroboree in it, Mr Douglas having bought some 400 native warriors and their wives and children across from the mainland to give the celebration a true native touch, for when they do a thing on Thursday Island they do it with a roar. The corroboree was at any rate, a howling success. It took place at night, and the performers painted in fantastic colours, danced or leaped about before a blazing fire. Some were rigged and painted like birds and beasts, in which the emu and kangaroo were well represented. One fellow leaped like a frog. Some had the human skeleton painted on their party”
Sounds awfully like a college party I once attended when things got slightly out of hand when I was learning to be a teacher in the early 80’s....but that as they say is another story.....better kept silent!
On June 24th well fitted in every way the ‘Spray’ set sail for the Indian ocean - with the trade winds still blowing fresh ....and which could be counted on to take him and ‘Spray’ all the way to Madagascar! However, with some time in hand, Joshua called in first at the Keeling Cocos atoll, some 2700 miles away (there are diversions; and there are diversions......!) He went via Timor and Christmas island....................awesome navigation really when you think he was single handed with a 12 tonne sloop and a tin alarm clock missing the minutes hand (which made calculating longitude an interesting exercise I guess).
Joshua Slocum – one pretty amazing dude as my teenagers would say!
Steve
His voyages were amazing and there is a huge amount to glean from them – distances travelled; places visited; customs at the time; the whole process of maritime navigation in the late 1800’s; the role of empire and HM Navy; the bureaucracy of governing an empire; the protocols on entering and exiting ports; his impressions of different peoples he met; the old fashioned courtesies of the day. The list is endless and I may well come back at times and make comment on one or two aspects of the above without giving away the plot and main story lines – for it s a great read and I don’t wish to spoil it for others.
However, here are small snippets from the last couple of chapters I have been reading.....enjoy and marvel at how one man managed to sail this sloop singlehandedly!
“26th May 1897. Gloucester Island was close aboard and ‘Spray’ anchored in the evening at Port Denison, where rests on a hill, the sweet little town of Bowen, the future watering place and health resort of Queensland”
“The harbour was of easy approach, spacious and safe, and afforded excellent holding ground”
From Port Denison, Slocum ran ‘Spray ‘ before the constant trade winds non-stop up the coast to Cooktown, which lay on the Endeavour River, where she arrived Monday May 31st 1897. It took him five days.
“I’d been charged to navigate this route with extra care and to feel my way over the ground. A skilled Royal Navy officer who advised me to take the Barrier Reef passage wrote me that HMS Orlando steamed nights as well as days through it, but that I, under sail, would jeopardise my vessel on coral reefs if I undertook to do so”
So, using the very best of admiralty charts, Slocum used the fair winds and sailed through the Barrier Reef channel both day and night........”In all sincerity, it was clearer than a highway in a busy city and by all odds less dangerous”
all those coral reefs to avoid......
Cooktown on the banks of the Endeavour River.......
He set sail again from Cooktown on June 6th 1897, heading away north as before. On the 7th he arrived at ‘a very inviting anchorage abreast the Claremont light ship’. On the 8th he departed again and kept sailing through the night passing the M lightship on the way but bouncing off a coral reef which fortunately did neither him or Spray any damage. Aiming for Cape Greenville, “the natives are notoriously bad and I was advised to give them the go-by”. [I’d just like to point out I am quoting Capt’n Joshua Slocum who passed Cape Greenville in 1897 and in no way am I casting any aspersions on the good people who live at Cape Greenville now – so if you hail from this place and are reading this blog post – I am sure you are all wonderful.....please don’t shout at me!]
the coastline on the way to Cape Greenville..........oh yes - plenty of reefs and islands on this passage
Skipping along as Joshua puts it, he passed Home Island soon after midnight and squared away on a westerly course making for Sunday Island, then arriving at Bird Island on Wednesday 9th June 1897, where he came close to land, anchoring at 7.30pm in the company of a pearl fishing boat named the ‘Tarawa’. He stayed here for several days visiting out stations before making for Thursday Island and the Torres Strait which he arrived at shortly after noon on Thursday 24th June. [Which is at the tip of Queensland – wow!]
Home island
Thursday island right at the very tip of Queensland, Australia
Now here he stayed for two days because it was the Queen’s (Victoria) diamond jubilee. He met people on the island and they had a party celebration which I share with you here in Joshua’s own words
“Meanwhile I spent pleasant days about the island. Mr Douglas, resident magistrate, invited me on a cruise in his steamer one day amongst the islands in Torres Strait. This being a scientific expedition in charge of Professor Mason Bailey, botanist, we rambled over Friday and Saturday islands, where I got a glimpse of botany. Miss Bailey, the professor’s daughter, accompanied the expedition, and told me of many indigenous plants with long names.”
It truly was a time of extraordinary exploration and learning wasn’t it; and actually for some women, an opportunity as well that would not be afforded them in society back in London. You can see where the roots of suffragette-ism may well have started – so many women across the empire doing extraordinary things in a time of male domination in all aspects of exploration, art, science and learning. But then I am not a historian and I may well have this completely wrong...any way Joshua continues......
“the 22nd was the great day on Thursday Island, for then we not only had the Jubilee, but a Jubilee with a grand Corroboree in it, Mr Douglas having bought some 400 native warriors and their wives and children across from the mainland to give the celebration a true native touch, for when they do a thing on Thursday Island they do it with a roar. The corroboree was at any rate, a howling success. It took place at night, and the performers painted in fantastic colours, danced or leaped about before a blazing fire. Some were rigged and painted like birds and beasts, in which the emu and kangaroo were well represented. One fellow leaped like a frog. Some had the human skeleton painted on their party”
Sounds awfully like a college party I once attended when things got slightly out of hand when I was learning to be a teacher in the early 80’s....but that as they say is another story.....better kept silent!
On June 24th well fitted in every way the ‘Spray’ set sail for the Indian ocean - with the trade winds still blowing fresh ....and which could be counted on to take him and ‘Spray’ all the way to Madagascar! However, with some time in hand, Joshua called in first at the Keeling Cocos atoll, some 2700 miles away (there are diversions; and there are diversions......!) He went via Timor and Christmas island....................awesome navigation really when you think he was single handed with a 12 tonne sloop and a tin alarm clock missing the minutes hand (which made calculating longitude an interesting exercise I guess).
Joshua Slocum – one pretty amazing dude as my teenagers would say!
Steve
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