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Joshua Slocum - Sailing Alone Around The World
commercial roads, and I could not see that it made much difference where I anchored. But a negro chap,
a sort of deputy harbormaster, coming along, thought it did, and he ordered me to shift to the other
anchorage, which, in truth, I had already investigated and did not like, because of the heavier roll there
from the sea. And so instead of springing to the sails at once to shift, I said I would leave outright as soon
as I could procure a chart, which I begged he would send and get for me. "But I say you mus' move befo'
you gets anyt'ing't all," he insisted, and raising his voice so that all the people alongshore could hear him,
he added, "An' jes now!" Then he flew into a towering passion when they on shore snickered to see the
crew of the Spray sitting calmly by the bulwark instead of hoisting sail. "I tell you dis am
quarantine" he shouted, very much louder than before. "That's all right, general," I replied; "I want to be
quarantined anyhow." "That's right, boss," some one on the beach cried, "that's right; you get
quarantined, "while others shouted to the deputy to "make de white trash move 'long out o' dat." They
were about equally divided on the island for and against me. The man who had made so much fuss over
the matter gave it up when he found that I wished to be quarantined, and sent for an all-important
half-white, who soon came alongside, starched from clue to earing. He stood in the boat as straight up
and down as a fathom of pump-water - a marvel of importance. "Charts!" cried I, as soon as his
shirt-collar appeared over the sloop's rail; "have you any charts?" "No, sah," he replied with
much-stiffened dignity; "no, sah; cha'ts do'sn't grow on dis island." Not doubting the information, I
tripped anchor immediately, as I had intended to do from the first, and made all sail for St. John, Antigua,
where I arrived on the 1st of June, having sailed with great caution in midchannel all the way.
The Spray, always in good company, now fell in with the port officers' steam-launch at the
harbor entrance, having on board Sir Francis Fleming, governor of the Leeward Islands, who, to the
delight of "all hands," gave the officer in charge instructions to tow my ship into port. On the following
day his Excellency and Lady Fleming, along with Captain Burr, R. N., paid me a visit. The court-house
was tendered free to me at Antigua, as was done also at Grenada, and at each place a highly intelligent
audience filled the hall to listen to a talk about the seas the Spray had crossed, and the countries
she had visited.
CHAPTER XXI
Clearing for home - In the calm belt - A sea covered with sargasso - The jibstay parts in a gale -
Welcomed by a tornado off Fire Island - A change of plan - Arrival at Newport - End of a cruise of over
forty-six thousand miles - The Spray again at Fairhaven.
On the 4th. of June, 1898, the Spray cleared from the United States consulate, and her license to
sail single-handed, even round the world, was returned to her for the last time. The United States consul,
Mr. Hunt, before handing the paper to me, wrote on it, as General Roberts had done at Cape Town, a
short commentary on the voyage. The document, by regular course, is now lodged in the Treasury
Department at Washington, D. C.
On June 5, 1898, the Spray sailed for a home port, heading first direct for Cape Hatteras. On the
8th of June she passed under the sun from south to north; the sun's declination on that day was 22 degrees
54', and the latitude of the Spray was the same just before noon. Many think it is excessively hot
right under the sun. It is not necessarily so. As a matter of fact the thermometer stands at a bearable point
whenever there is a breeze and a ripple on the sea, even exactly under the sun. It is often hotter in cities
and on sandy shores in higher latitudes.
The Spray was booming joyously along for home now, making her usual good time, when of a
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