Captain Slocum's Voyage.

Hastings Standard, Issue 149, 19 October 1896, Page 4

Captain Slocum's Voyage.

Some notoriety has attached to Captain Slocum by late cables from Svdney implicating hini in Police Court proceedings. The captain is from Boston, U.S. and in a 18-ton yacht, built by himself he set out 17 months ago on a solitary trip round the world. Leaving Boston in April last year he crossed the Atlantic to Gibraltar, and then recrossed it to Pernambuco, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Ayres, and Punta Arenas, in the Magellan Straits, were the next places of call, and then he steered for •Juan Fernandez.. Then he sailed to Samoa, and on leaving there he made for Newcastle which he reached at the end of last month. From there he intends to work round the coast, and 011 leaving Australia to go to F.ngland via Mauritious and Cape of Good Hope, finally returning to Boston. Such a voyage-, which up tb the present has occupied over 2:i() days' sailing, would be interesting if accomplished in a ship, it enters the region of adventure when undertaken by one man. And of adventure Captain Slocum has had his share. He is a spare, wiry, baldheaded Yankee, some fifty years of age, and possessinggreat determination, perseverance, and powers ot endurance. IJis first really bad weather was experienced when working through Magellan Straits, where he encountered furious gales which drove him nearly down to Cape Horn. His sails were blown away, and he had to rig up a tarpaulin in their place. However, he came through safely, while several large vessels were dismasted. He had little or no sleep during tiiis experience. Later on when leaving l'unta Aienas he was warned to be careful of the natives as he went through the Straits, as they were a. cowardly, thieving lot who, when in large numbers, would commit any crime. Caplain Slocum, therefore, appeared on deck with a rifle in his hand when some natives put oh' to him in canoes, and they did not trouble him that time. On another occasion, however, some came on board, and were rather difficult to get rid of, so the next evening the skipper strewed some strong tacks about on the deck. His visitors duly appeared, but finding the combination of bare feet and sharp tacks anvthing but pleasant, they howled dismally and made off. The Captain was so glad to get away from this neighborhood that he was very little put out by a spell of bad weather, which kept him :-SG hours at the wheel. At Juan Fernandez he visited the cave in which Robinson Crusoe lived, and saw the tablet which records the fact of Selkirk's long residence on the island. He also met there a Portuguese farmer, who beat him —a Yankee —at trading, exchanging a bag of his potatoes for a bag of " splendid Now Yorkers" that Captain Slocum had on board. He said he wanted them for seed. "I should think he did," remarked the Captain, " for the things he gave me went bad before I'd had time to make a fair start on them."

At Apia, Capt. Slocum's first visitors were the relatives of the late Robert Louis Stevenson. Mrs Stevenson gave him several books of sailing directions for the coast and islands of the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean, which had belonged to the late novelist, and in one of them she wrote Captain Slocum's name .and the following incription :—" This volume has been read and re-read many times by my husband, and I am very sure he would lie pleased that it should be passed on to the sort of seafaring man that he liked above all others." From Apia the Spray had a long and stormy passage to Newcastle via New Caledonia. The Captain had a great wish to see Queensland, as he had read somewhere that it had no public debt, and op being told that this was not the case his interest in the colony visibly waned. In answer to an interviewer's question, he said he felt no loneliness at sea. " I have my books," he said, " there they are, all my friends," pointing to his book shelves. " Cervantes, all the great English authors, then there is my friend Robert Louis Stevenson, and what's the matter with Robert Burns '? I feel that all these great men are my companions. I read slowly, and sometimes when I come across something I don't understand I read it over and studyit until I do, and then don't I enjoy it ! During this voyage I have had pleasures and experiences that money could not buy." Captain Slocum had several objects in mind when he set out. He loved the sea, for one thing ; he had lost money as a shipowner, and meant to try and make a little by the venture; and he also wanted to show that the voyage round the world could be made in such a small boat as his. Other queries brought out the information that he never hove-to or put out a sea anchor when he went to sleep, he " just let her bowl along as usual," though, of course, he did not turn in if bad weather threatened. As he is under engagement to a New York paper to write tip his travels, we may expect some day to have a full account of a most remarkable voyage.