A Man for All Oceans

Stan Grayson, A Man for All Oceans: Captain Joshua Slocum and the First Solo Voyage Around the World (Thomaston, ME: Tilbury House Publishers) 2017.


grayson man for all oceans
I'm a bit of a fan of the lore of the sea and I have already read a couple of different biographies of Joshua Slocum as well as Slocum's own account of his trip, "Sailing alone around the world: A voyage beyond imagination." Still, I found Grayson's account to sport not only a fresh approach with information that I had not yet discerned, but also insightful in bringing additional understanding to the man, his motivations, and how he pulled off the incredible feat of such a remarkable voyage. Grayson's careful and accurate analysis does not, however, decrease the mystery and romanticism of the sea for me. This is especially evident near the end of the book where he offers what information he has about Slocum's final voyage and what might have happened to the intrepid captain ion the end.

Lovers of sailing, lovers of adventure, lovers of history and lovers of the lore of the sea will all enjoy this book and its contributions to the field of literature that surrounds the first solo circumnavigation of the globe. The ship was relatively small, the distances were incredibly great, the odds were against a successful adventure, yet Slocum persisted and accomplished what had not before been done and earned his place in the history and the lore of sailing and the sea.