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This beautiful medal has been minted in France to commemorate Joshua SLOCUM, the first man to sail single-handedly around the world, 1844 - 1909.
It is signed by the French medalist, JACQUELINE BECHET-FARBER.
Joshua Slocum (February 20, 1844 – on or shortly after November 14, 1909) was the first man to sail single-handedly around the world. He was a Nova Scotian born, naturalised American seaman and adventurer, and a noted writer. In 1900 he wrote a book about his journey Sailing Alone Around the World, which became an international best-seller. He disappeared in November 1909 while aboard his boat, the Spray.
av.
Joshua Slocum
rv.
The boat “Spray”
diameter - 68 mm (2¾“)
weight – 184.10 gr, (6.49 oz)
metal – bronze, mint original patina
On April 24, 1895, he set sail from Boston, Massachusetts. In his famous
book, Sailing Alone Around the World, now
considered a classic of travel
literature, he described his departure in the following manner:
"I had
resolved on a voyage around the world, and as the wind on the morning of April
24, 1895 was fair, at noon I weighed anchor, set sail, and filled away from
Boston, where the Spray had been moored snugly all winter. The twelve
o'clock whistles were blowing just as the sloop shot ahead under full sail. A
short board was made up the harbor on the port tack, then coming about she
stood to seaward, with her boom well off to port, and swung past the ferries
with lively heels. A photographer on the outer pier of East Boston got a
picture of her as she swept by, her flag at the peak throwing her folds clear.
A thrilling pulse beat high in me. My step was light on deck in the crisp air.
I felt there could be no turning back, and that I was engaging in an adventure
the meaning of which I thoroughly understood."
After an extended visit to his boyhood home at Brier Island and visiting old
haunts on the coast of Nova Scotia, Slocum took his departure from North
America at Sambro Island Lighthouse near Halifax, Nova
Scotia on July 3, 1895.
Slocum navigated without a chronometer, instead relying
on the traditional method of dead
reckoning for longitude, which required only a cheap tin clock for
approximate time, and noon-sun sights for latitude. On one long passage in the
Pacific, Slocum also famously shot a lunar distance observation,
decades after these observations had ceased to be commonly employed, which
allowed him to check his longitude independently. However, Slocum's primary
method for finding longitude was still dead reckoning; he recorded only one
lunar observation during the entire circumnavigation.
Slocum normally sailed the Spray without touching
the helm. Due to the length of the sail plan relative to the hull, and the long
keel, the Spray was capable of self-steering (unlike faster modern
craft), and he balanced it stably on any course relative to the wind by adjusting
or reefing the sails and by lashing the helm fast. He sailed 2,000 miles
(3,200 km) west across the Pacific without once touching the helm.
More than three years later, on June 27, 1898, he
returned to Newport, Rhode Island, having circumnavigated the world, a
distance of more than 46,000 miles (74,000 km). Slocum's return went
almost unnoticed. The Spanish–American War, which had begun
two months earlier, dominated the headlines. After the end of major
hostilities, many American newspapers published articles describing Slocum's
amazing adventure.
In 1899 he published his account of the epic voyage in Sailing Alone Around the World, first
serialized in The Century Magazine and then in several book-length
editions. Reviewers received the slightly anachronistic age-of-sail adventure story
enthusiastically. Arthur
Ransome went so far as to declare, "Boys who do not like
this book ought to be drowned at once." In his review, Sir Edwin Arnold wrote, "I do
not hesitate to call it the most extraordinary book ever published."
Slocum's book deal was an integral part of his journey:
his publisher had provided Slocum with an extensive on-board library, and
Slocum wrote several letters to his editor from distant points around the globe.
Slocum's Sailing Alone won him widespread fame in the English-speaking world. He was one of eight invited speakers at a dinner in honor of Mark Twain in December 1900. Slocum hauled the Spray up the Erie Canal to Buffalo, New York for the Pan-American Exposition in the summer of 1901, and he was well compensated for participating in the fair.