Reviews
A Man For All Oceans: Captain Joshua Slocum and the First Solo Voyage Around the World by Stan Grayson (Tillbury House Publishers with the New Bedford Whaling Museum, Thomaston, ME, and New Bedford, MA, 2017, 399pp, illus, maps, appen, notes, biblio, index, isbn 9780-88448-548-3; $29.95hc) Any old salt’s bookshelf has a few musthaves, from classic maritime fiction (MobyDick, The Sea Wolf ) to compelling and authentic personal narratives (Two Years Before the Mast, Sailing Alone Around the World, The Last Grain Race). Naval fiction, of course, is dominated by C. S. Forester and Patrick O’Brian. I will not go into all the categories of what else should be on your bookshelf, whether you are an ancient mariner or an armchair sailor, only to say that if you have not read Joshua Slocum’s eminently readable Sailing Alone book, then you need to. And when you have finished, you will be itching for more. While Wikipedia can give you a quick fix, I’ll do you a favor and just tell you straight out—go buy A Man For All Oceans, a new book by Stan Grayson about Joshua Slocum. No ordinary person sets out on a voyage alone around the world, whether it’s Joshua Slocum in Spray in 1895 or today’s yacht racers in the ongoing round-the-world competitions in high-tech multi-hulls. They all have something going on. Slocum was the first, however, and he was a complicated soul who had lived through adventurous and sometimes tragic experiences at sea, and maintained controversial relationships and behaviors ashore. His narrative makes great reading, but this is not a review of Sailing Alone. What Slocum does not delve into are the details of his curious life before and after his three-year odyssey aboard Spray. This is where Stan Grayson comes in. While plenty has been written about Slocum in the past, Grayson’s biography covers more ground and delves into more sources than previous authors, shedding light on the pieces of Slocum’s background that have eluded others and following through to Slocum’s mysterious end, chasing down rumors and fleshing out contradictions in documents and records. When Slocum put to sea for the last time in 1909 (but some say 1908—even that is not clear),
larger of the two comprises less than half a square mile and supports a current population of well under two thousand. The smaller has no permanent residential population, but serves as an airport. Currently a possession of Germany, the island was held by Denmark until 1807. Heligoland has been the center of contention between Germany and Great Britain since 1807, when the British seized the archipelago from Denmark during the Napoleonic wars. In Heligoland: Britain, Germany and the Struggle for the North Sea, Jan Rûger focuses on this small territory, as he develops a microstudy to illuminate the historical relationship between Great Britain and Germany. Contention over the speck in the The Glencannon PressNorth Sea was not always a sign of conflict between the two nations. When British 4 col. inches (2.25 x 4.5 inches) forces annexed Heligoland, the Royal Navy Prefer right hand page, bottom right. never to be seen again, he set the stage for was committed to blockading the Contigenerations of rumor and conjecture. Gray- nent with the goal of starving out the son does not pretend to have a definitive French, while Napoleon, with his Berlin answer to what happened to Slocum, but and Milan decrees, stated his own goal of he gets us as close as we will ever get starving out the British by denying them through his dogged research and thorough access to the Continent. analysis of Slocum’s personality, recollections of his family and friends, newspaper The Glencannon accounts and letters, plus a study of weather, routes, and charts, and, of course, SloPress cum’s own words. Grayson also knows a thing or two about boats, which is both Maritime Books helpful and necessary in looking at Slocum’s successful voyages and tragic losses in vessels big and small. Among the useful apWhalers, Wharves and pendices at the back is a look at Slocum’s Warfare, PeoPle and events many commands, from the 1,795-ton that shaPed Pigeon Point square-rigger Northern Light to the little 39-foot Spray. Other appendices give a rundown of Slocum’s children with his first Not merely a tower of brick, wife (and the love of his life) Ginny; and this lighthouse is filled with even include a recipe for the old mariner’s tales of people who lived and fish chowder. Lesley Prevett worked within. Their human Naples, Florida experiences offer a glimpse
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Heligoland: Britain, Germany and the Struggle for the North Sea by Jan Rûger (Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, 2017, 370pp, illus, notes, biblio, index, isbn 978-0-19-967246-2; $34.95) Heligoland is a small island (actually two small islands, one having broken off in a storm in 1720) in the North Sea. The
into a vanished way of life. Hardcover, 7x10, 192 pp. 83+ photos. $29.95 + $5 shipping. Free Catalog 1-510-455-9027 Online catalog at www.glencannon.com
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