Slocum's voyage proved that extraordinary endurance and individual determination could reshape what anyone thought possible. His account of the journey still draws in readers and adventurers more than a century later, which says rather a lot about the story he had to tell.
Imagine announcing that you plan to sail alone around the entire world in a secondhand sloop. Now imagine doing it in 1895, when the response would have ranged from gentle concern to outright disbelief. Joshua Slocum got all of that, and then went ahead anyway.
One Man, One Sloop, Three Years
Slocum set out from Nova Scotia in 1895 aboard his sloop, Spray, and what followed was not a quiet cruise. He faced treacherous weather, the attentions of pirates, and the incredulity of local authorities in Buenos Aires who presumably felt the whole enterprise was implausible. Hard to blame them, really.
The journey took three years and made Slocum the first person to complete a solo circumnavigation of the world. He wrote it all up in Sailing Alone Around the World, a book that continues to inspire adventurers. There is something quietly remarkable about that: a man alone at sea, and the account of it still lands more than a hundred years later.
The Shorter Drops
The episode does not stop at the ocean’s edge. There are three other stories woven into this one, all of them worth a few minutes of your time.
In 1967, Barclays installed the first ATM. We now treat cash machines with the weary familiarity we reserve for things that occasionally eat our cards, but the installation was, at the time, a genuine turning point in how people interacted with their own money.
In 1953, the Korean Armistice was signed, bringing a ceasefire to a conflict that had cost an enormous number of lives. The armistice ended the hostilities, even if what it left behind remained far from simple.
And in 1887, construction began on the Eiffel Tower. Controversial at the outset, to put it diplomatically. Less controversial now.
Worth Your Ten Minutes
The episode holds together around a single thread: people doing things that seemed unlikely, impractical, or frankly a bit much, and the world quietly adjusting its expectations in response. Slocum’s voyage is the centrepiece, but the supporting stories each add their own texture.
If you have ever looked at something enormous and thought, well, someone had to go first, this one is for you. The audio version has a bit more colour and a considerably more dramatic retelling of the pirates. Come for Slocum, stay for the armistice.