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  • Sailing Alone Around the World

  • By: Joshua Slocum
  • Narrated by: Bernard Mayes
  • Length: 7 hrs and 25 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (68 ratings)

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Sailing Alone Around the World

By: Joshua Slocum
Narrated by: Bernard Mayes
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Publisher's Summary

Challenged by an expert who said it couldn’t be done, Joshua Slocum, a fearless New England sea captain, set out in April 1895 to prove that a man could sail alone around the world. A little over three years and forty-six thousand miles later, the proof was complete. This is Slocum’s own account of his remarkable adventures during the historic voyage of the Spray.

Whether Slocum was more accomplished as a writer or sailor is hard to say. His writing style is fast paced, witty, and exhilarating, an absorbing match to his harrowing adventures - adventures that included being chased by Moorish pirates off Gibraltar; escaping a fleet of hostile canoes; being submerged by a great wave off the Patagonian coast; an encounter with Black Pedro, “the worst murderer in Tierra del Fuego”; and foiling a nocturnal attack by savages by strewing carpet tacks on the Spray’s deck.

Captain Joshua Slocum (1844–1909) was the first person to circle the globe alone entirely by sea. This remarkable achievement made Slocum the most famous North American sailor of all time.

Public Domain (P)1992 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic Reviews

“[A] literate and absorbing yarn…A convincing tale of the intelligence, skill, and fortitude that drove a master navigator.” ( New York Times)
“One of the most readable books in the whole library of adventure.” ( Sports Illustrated)
“A classic book…Slocum’s writing is as elegant as his thirty-seven-foot sloop, Spray, whose crossing of the Atlantic he describes vividly.” ( New Yorker)

What listeners say about Sailing Alone Around the World

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An Epic Voyage

An interesting story and a good insight into life in those times. Well worth a listen.

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I signed on As his Phantom Stowaway Shipmate ⚓🦣

Very engaging and mellifluous voiced Narrator and so well Read I believed that he WAS- Joshua Slocum, what better Kudo can I think of than this ...Plan to Listen to it all again at years End when Hopefully I have my Own Boat⚓

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fascinating

spoken in detail with brevity! this educational recount of Joshua Solocum is like a Utopian Shackleton adventure, in a similar tone and period. must listen for sailing and adventure buffs.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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Slow but Worthwhile

Definitely a slow starter and its important to understand the context of the time. I found the narrator a little challenging but the story is well worth the listen for any sailor or adventurer.

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intriguing read

I found this book interesting but it also tended to rush over such great portions of Slocums journey in little to no detail at all. An interesting account of an epic journey at a time very different to the present.

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