The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-06-16
VOYAGE OF
THE SPRAY
Captain S|ocum's Long
Journey.
CLEAR AROUND THE GLOBE.
A Record of Yankee Grit and En-
terprise on Long
Adventure.

Those who enjoy a plain tale of travel
and adventure will find plenty to interest
and instruct them in Captain Joshua Slo-
cum volume, Sailing Alone Around the
World" illustrated by Thomas Fogarty.
In which he gives a graphic account of
his 'single-handed'' voyage of forty-siS
thousand miles in the sloop Spray. The
good ship was not only commanded and
sailed by himself alone, but had been
made by his own hands from an anti
quated sloop that had lain for seven years
high and dry upon the beach at Fairha-
ven. she measured forty feet long over
all, fourteen feet two inches BEAM and
four feet. four INCHES depth of hold, and
was planned to smash ice" though she
never had TO do it, her total cost being
$Jo5.6z Tor material and thirteen months
of Captain Slocum's labor.
On the morning of April 81 1896 she
left Boston on her voyage around the
world, going north as far as Sable Island
Eighteen days out, Captain Slocum made
occasional heavy weather to Gibraltar.
Shortly after leaving this friendly port
ne perceived pirate felucca following in
the wake of the Spray Here is his de-
scription of his fortunate escape:
changed my course; the fslucca did
the same. both vessels sailing very fast.
PIT the distance growing less and less be
tween them. The Spray was doing nobly;
she was even more than at her best:
out, in spite of all / could do she would
breach now and then She was carving
too much sail for safety. 1 must reef or
be dismasted and lose all pirate or no
pirate L must reef, even if L had to CRAP
pie with him for my life. L was not long
IN reefng the mansail and sweating it
up-probably not more than fifteen MIN
u1es; but the felucca had in the mean
| time so shortened the distance between
US that l could see the tuft of hair on
the heads of the crew-by which. it is
said, Mohammed will pull the villains up
Uerl nd thAxv
like the wind. From what l could clear
iy make out now. l felt them to be the
sons OF generations of pirates, and saw
that they were preparing to strike
blow. The exultation on their faces,
however, was changed in a moment to
a look OF fear and rage. Their craft,
the crest of great wave. This one great
sea changed the aspect of affairs as sud
denly as the flash of gun. Three min
Spray and shook her in every timber At
the same moment the sheet-strop parted
and away went the main-Doom, broken
short at the rigging. Impulsively
Sprang to the jib-halyards and down
haul, and instantly hauled the jib down.
The head sail being off, the helm was put
hard down. and the sloop came in the
wind with a bound. While shivering
there. but a moment though it was, / got
the mainsail down and secured inboard
boom In before the sail was torn / hardly
know; but it is fact that not a stitch
Oh IL was broken. The mainSail being Sc
cured, h0isted away the jib, and, with
out looking around, stepped quickly to
the cabin and snatched down my loaded
rifle and cartridges at hand; for / made
mental calculations that the pirate would
by this time have recovered his course
and be close aboard, and that when |
saw him ii would be better for me to be
looking at him along the barrel of gun
peered into the mist but there was no
pirate within a mile. The wave and
squall that carried away my boom dis
masted the felucca outright. l perceived
this thieving crew, some dozen or more
or them, struggling to recover their rig
ging from the sea. Allah. blacken their
Soon he reached the Cape Verde ISL
ands, and from there proceeded to Rio
de Janeiro and down the coast of South
America to the Straits OF Magellan En-
| route he had an excellent opportunity to
study sea life:
There was a dolphin that had followed
| the Spray about a thousand miles, and
| had been content to eat scraps of food
| thrown overheard from my table; for,
| having been wounded. it could not dart
| through the sea to prey on other fishes.
1 l had become accustomed to seeing the
/ dolphin. which l knew by its scars, and
| missed 1t whenever it took occasional ex-
| cursions away from the sloop. One day,
| after II had been off some hours II re-
| turned in company with three yellow
tails. a sort of cousin to the dolphin. This
| little school kept together except when
In danger and when foraging about the
sea- Their lives were often threatened
] by hungry sharks that came around the
vessel, and more than once they had mar
row escapes. Their mode of escape inter
ested me greatly. and l passed hours
T, watching them. They would dart away,
| sach In a different direction, so that the
| wolf OF the sea. the shark. pursuing one.
| would be led away from the others; then
after while they would all return and
| rendezvous under one side or the other
OF the sloop. Twice their pursuers were
| diverted by tin pan. which / towed
| astern of the sloop, and which was mis-
| taken for a bright fish. and while turn
ing. in the peculiar way that sharks
nave when about to devour their prey ]
shot them through the head
| Their precarious life seemed to concern
| the yellowtails very little, If at ALL Some
| of the species Captain Slocum saw hud-
die together as though they knew they
were created for the larger fishes, and