Plaque reads:
The First Man To Sail Around The World Alone
1895 • Sloop Spray 37 Feet 9 Tons • 1898
The Spray was launched near this site and returned
here after her voyage
Joshua Slocum, born in Nova Scotia in 1844, became the first person to sail alone around the world when In April 1895 he set sail from Boston in the 36-foot Spray. He followed a route that took him to Nova Scotia, the Azores, Gibraltar, South America, Samoa, Australia, South Africa, the West Indies, and finally, in June 1898, to Newport, R.I., to complete his circumnavigation.
In Fairhaven, MA a commemorative boulder with a bronze plaque sits in a park on Pilgrim Avenue close to where Slocum rebuilt and launched the Spray.
Joshua Slocum’s first feat of fame came following the publication of his book Voyage of the Liberdade, about the shipwreck of his ship the Aquidneck and the building of the 35-foot Liberdade, that he and his family sailed on from Brazil back to America. With the publication of his book, Slocum toured with the Liberdade, at one point stopping in Fairhaven, MA in August of 1890. It was during this visit that Slocum met Captain Eben Pierce, a retired seaman who lived on the area known as Poverty Point.
In a field on the waterfront near Pierce’s home (which ran between Lafayette Street and what is now Pilgrim Avenue) was his old sloop the Spray, which had fallen into dilapidation. Slocum decided he would rebuild the Spray and live aboard her. Several months were spent completely rebuilding the Spray board by board and when finally complete, Slocum moved the Spray to Boston in 1894.
Then, on April 24, 1895, Joshua Slocum set out from Boston on what would become a three-year solo journey around the globe. Slocum’s solo voyage ended on June 27, 1898, at Newport, RI. He had sailed 46,000 miles (74,000 km) in three years, two months, and two days becoming the first person to sail alone around the world.
On July 3, 1898, he sailed back to the Poverty Point neighborhood of Fairhaven, MA.
Joshua Slocum’s famous memoir on his journey, Sailing Alone Around the World written in 1899, was an immediate literary success and inspiration for fellow adventurers.
Many others have attempted to duplicate his journey. Twenty five years after Slocum, Harry Pidgeon sailed a solo circumnavigation, but used the Panama Canal, while Slocum sailed the dangerous Straits of Magellan. The first solo circumnavigation to follow Slocum’s route was completed in 1938 by Louis Bernicott of France.
Captain Joshua Slocum and the Spray were lost at sea after he set sail in November 1908 from New England to spend the winter in Grand Cayman. It was assumed that he had been the victim of some sort of collision. Slocum and the Spray were never found and in 1924 he was finally declared legally dead.
Further Reading:
Sailing Alone Around the World by Joshua Slocum
Sources: