Joshua Slocum - First person to solo sail the world

Thomas Fogarty: Joshua Slocum

Thomas Fogarty is not too well known today. In the early years of the 20th century he and his colleague George Brandt Bridgman were popular and influential instructors at the Art Students' League in New York City. Norman Rockwell was one of Fogarty's pupils. Thomas Fogarty was competent in several mediums but especially noted for his pen and ink work, particularly his illustrations for 'Sailing Alone Around the World' by Joshua Slocum.

I don't have a photo of Fogarty but I can offer some pages from the Slocum book, scanned from installments which appeared in issues of The Century Magazine for 1898.

Click on image to enlarge the title page. Captain Slocum was already famous in the 1880s as skipper (and part-owner) of the famous clipper ship Northern Lightbefore he took Spray around the world singlehandedly.

Fogarty's illustration depicts Slocum with calking tools in hand being confronted by locals at the Fairhaven boatyard where Spray became a reality. This is one of his better drawings but the poses look to be based on photos.

This is a complicated pen drawing that doesn't get a whole lot better even by enlarging it. The subjects were encountered in their dugout canoe in the Strait of Magellan so we can guess they are Fuegan Indians. I wonder where the art editor was when this illustration arrived on his desk.

I don't know what's going on with these faces.

Apparently Slocum didn't want them to get any closer. Click on image to enlarge.

By contrast, this is a delightful encounter made as Slocum anchored Spray at Apia in Samoa. While resting under the boat's awning he heard lovely voices singing in the evening air. Three young women approached, one of whom shouted "Talofa lee," in Samoan, which translates as "Love to you, Chief." "What for you come long way?" he was asked. "To hear you ladies sing," he replied. "Oh, talofa lee!" they all cried out, and sang on, he wrote in his book.

Years ago, when I first became interested in sailing, Slocum was one of the first authors I read. I thought that this encounter would make a great subject for a painting. This is the watercolor I did. It is more whimsical than factual. Click on it and the ink drawing, above, to enlarge.

These are two of Fogarty's best, in my opinion.

I can't resist adding this photo taken by my wife a month ago off Amelia Island, Florida, when Charter Skipper Rhett Holden-Dodge asked me to take the wheel of his 30-foot Catalina sloop. What a joy! Spray was only a forty-footer and I can't image even a great seaman like Slocum taking it around the world as he did in those days at age 51 without the technology we have today.

Arthur Ransome described Slocum's account as "one of the immortal books".

The complete "Sailing Alone Around the World" may be read here.