The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1900-03-15
The Sprays Lines and Sails.

Facts About the Sloop that was Sailed
Singled Handed on a Voyage of 10000 Miles.
Capt. Joshua Slocum, author of "Sail-
ing Alone Around the World" having
something to say to his critics, says it very
plainly in the March Century.
From a ceiling of diffidence towards
sailors of great experience, / refrained, in
my published account of my single hand
eo voyage around the world, from enter
Ing fully into the details of the Sprays
build, and of the primitive methods
employed to sail her. Having had no
yachting experience at all, l had no means
knowing that the trim vessels seen in our
harbors and near the land could not all do
as much, or even more than the Spray
sailing, for example, on a course with the
helm dashed.
l was aware that no other vessel had
sailed in this manner around the globe,
but would have been loath to say that
another could not 40 it, OF that many men
had hot sailed vessels of a certain rig in
that manner as far as they wished to go.
l was greatly amused, therefore, by the
tat assertion Of a local expert that it
could not be done, and was also amazed
that one i'll his position should put him
self SO completely in my hands, when he
criticized me somewhat unkindly, think.
Some of the oldest and ablest
sbipmasters have asked how it was posi-
BILE Tor her to hold a true course before
the wind, which was Just what the Spray
did for weeks together. One of these gen
tlemen, a highly esteemed shipmaster and
flend, testified as government expert iH a
famous murd.r trial in Boston, not long
since, that q ship would not hold her
course long enough for the steersman to
leave the helm to cut the captain S throat.
Ordinarily it would be so. One might say
that with a square rugged ship it would
always be so. . But see the run
the Spray made from Thursday Island to
the Keeling Cocos Island, twenty seven
hundred miles distant, in twenty three
days, with no one at the helm in that time,
save for about one hour, from land to
land. No other ship in the history of the
world ever performed, under similar cir
cumstances, the feat on SO long and con-
unuous voyage 1t was, however, a de-
lighttul midsummer sail. Nc one can
know the pleasure of sailing free over the
great oceans save those who have had the
experience. 1t is not necessary, in order
10 realize the utmost enjoyment of going
around the globe, to sail alone, yet for
once and the first time there was great
deal of fun in it.
| have given in the plans of the Spray
the dimensions of such ship as | should
call seaworthy in all conditions of wealth
er and on all seas. 1t is only right to say,
though that to insure reasonable meas
IRE OF success experience should sail with
the ship. But in order to be successful
navigator or sailor it is not necessary to
hang tar bucket about ones neck. On
the other hand, much thought concerning
the brass buttons one should wear adds
nothing to the safety of the ship. Prac
tice in a craft such as the Spray will teach
young sailors and fit them for the more
important vessels. | myself learned more
seamanship, | think, on the Spray than
on any other ship | ever sailed and as for
patience the greatest of all the virtues,
even while sailing through the reaches of
the Strait of Magellan. between the bluff
mainland and dismal Fuego, where | was
obliged TO steer, | learned to sit by the
wheel, content 10 make ten miles a day
beating against the tide, and when a
month at that was all lost. / could find
some old tue to hum while worked the
route all over again, beating as before.
Nor did thirty hours at the wheel, IN
storm, 0VcItaN my human endurance, and
to clap Il band to an oar and pull into ar
olt of a port in calm was M strange eA
pelience Iur the crew OF the Spray. The
days passed happily with me wherever
any Ship sailed.