Joshua Slocum was born in Nova Scotia in 1844. He became an American citizen and Captain Slocum at age 25. On 24 April 1895, at 51-year old, Slocum sailed out of Boston in his 11m (37ft) sloop Spray, a decrepit oyster dredger that he had rebuilt himself. Slocum crossed the Atlantic toward the Suez Canal. In Gibraltar, he was warned of pirates in the Mediterranean. So, he started back across the Atlantic, and headed down the Brazilian coast, through the hellish Strait of Magellan. He faced deadly currents, rocky coasts and heavy seas as he sailed around Australia, the Cape of Good Hope, and across the Atlantic. On 27 June 1898, more than 3 years and 74000km (46,000 miles) later, Joshua Slocum entered Newport, Rhode Island, as the first man to sail around the world solo.
