GIVEN UP AS LOST.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 330, 17 June 1911, Page 9

GIVEN UP AS LOST.

CAPTAIX S LOCUM AND SLOOP SPEAY. Although the Blue Book of the United States Government has not yet taken the sloop Spray from its records of American vessels, there seems to be but little doubt in the minds of mariners tliat the world-renowned Spray and her skipper, Captain Joshua Slocum, are lost, and that neither will be heard from again. The intrepid navigator who sailed around the world alone in his little Bloop, taking the American flag into ports that had not seen the Stars and Stripes for years, in some places never, lias not been heard iroin since the day over two ywirs ago lliat he set sail from Vineyard Haven, .Mass., for a trip to the West Indies, where he intended remaining that winter, and in the summer set sail for home again or for another wandering cruise to some place where the climate agreed with him. The New England climate played havoc with Captain Slocum's health, and that was one reason why he liked the sea. The idea of making his thousands and tens of thousands of miles alone along the highway of the oceans didn't seem to bother the lone skipper.

When Captain Slocum started from Boston on his world-circling voyage in 181)5 it was for an absence of three years. His relatives and friends heard but few times from the lone skipper, outside the newspaper accounts of the wanderings of the Spray, and when after mouths during the year 181)8 no word came from the Spray, Captain Slocum was given up as lost, but he wasn't, and the Spray turned up in good season at .Newport,"R.l. But this time the Spray was only bound for the West Indies, it is possible Captain Slocum is still sailing among the islands of the southern oceans, but as lie had no reason for keeping his family in suspense concerning his wliereabouts, unless he expects to come back in a spectacular manner with a new kind of sea story, it is generally conceded that ho and the Spray are "lost at sea."

Captain Slocum's wife resides (it West 'J isbiiry, Martini's Vineyard, where the captain purchased two farms and went in for the raising of hops after his worldcircling trip. -Mrs. Slocum is reconciled to the fact that the lone mariner has met his fate, and she is convinced that he has been run down by a steamer in the night. Captain Slocum always termed himself a "naturalised Yankee. lie has left no record of the exact year he was born, but bis wife says that he would be about sixty-six years old if living to-day. ife was horn in Nova Scotia, in a township overlooking the l!ay of Fuudy. As a lad he spent, eight years in VVestport Harbor, X.S., and there learned to sad a boat and acquired his love for the sea.

His first real experience as a sailor! was as cook on board a fishing vessel, but his next experience was as sailor before the mast of a full-rigged sailing ship. A man who later on was destine., to make, the world sailors sit up and take notice, was hound to have a rapid rise in his chosen profession, and it was not long before lie trod the i|itarler-(leck of a vessel. Mis best command was the Northern Light, of which lie was part owner. Jn her he sailed to China and Japan, to the Philippines, to Liverpool and New York. He boasted that in a period of twenty' years lie never lost a man. After the Northern Light he owned and sailed the Aqnidneek, a large barque, hut she was lost on the coast of Brazil. From ner wreckage Captain Slocum built a small craft called the La Liberdade, in which he came to America, and exhibited ner, and then turned to shipbuilding. While engaged in this work he conceived the idea of getting an old vessel and turning her into a marine museum. Through the efforts of V. K. Krown, the whaling bomb maker, lie had a chance to accept a gift of the old sloop Spray, a former Delaware river oyster boat. Captain Slocum re-built the Spray, and launched her from Fairhaven after thirteen months' work on her. After a season spent in fishing, in which the venture proved to be unprofitable, Captain Slocum reeled up his lines and decided upon sailing around the world alone in his little craft. The dimensions of the craft were :i(ift 9in over all, 14ft 2in wide, and 4ft 2in depth of hold. She was only 9 tons net and 1-2.71 gross. She was decked all over with raised hatches to give head head room fore and aft. He set sail from Boston on April 24, 18flo. He fashioned a ship's boat from half a dory, which also served as a bathtub.