Captain Joshua Slocum, one day outbound from the Azores for Gibraltar on his voyage around the world, is stricken with food poisoning. He is assisted at sea by Martin Alonso Pinzon, commander of the Pinta from the armada of Columbus.
Over the years, questions have been
raised about the authenticity of Joshua Slocum's claim that he
sailed around the world entirely single-handed. His report that
he was disabled by food poisoning on his voyage and joined aboard
the Spray in mid-ocean by the navigator of the Pinta, however,
has been little doubted.
"... looking out the companionway, to my amazement, I saw a tall man at the helm. His rigid hand, grasping the spokes of the wheel, held them as in a vise. One may imagine my astonishment. His rig was that of a foreign sailor, and the large red cap he wore was cockbilled over his left ear, and all was set off with shaggy black whiskers. He would have been taken for a pirate in any part of the world. While I gazed upon his threatening aspect I forgot the storm, and wondered if he had come to cut my throat. This he seemed to divine.
"Senor, said he, doffing his cap, 'I have come to do you no harm.' And a smile, the faintest in the world, but still a smile, played on his face, which seemed not unkind when he spoke. 'I have come to do you no harm. I have sailed free,' he said, ' but was never worse than a contrabandista. I am one of Columbus's crew,' he continued. 'I am the pilot of the Pinta come to aid you. Lie quiet, senor captain,' he added, 'and I will guide your ship to-night. You have the calentura, but you will be all right to-morrow.' I thought what a very devil he was to carry sail. Again, as if to read my mind, he exclaimed: 'Yonder is the Pinta ahead; we must overtake her. Give her sail; give her sail! Vale, vale, muy vale!' Biting off a large quid of black twist, he said: 'You did wrong, captain, to mix cheese with plums. White cheese is never safe unless you know whence it comes. Quein sabe, it may have been from leche de Capra and becoming capricious --------------
"... my eyes all the while fastened on my strange guest, who, remarking again that I would have only 'pains and calentura,' chuckled as he chanted a wild song:
High are the waves, fierce, gleaming,
High is the tempest roar!
High the sea-bird screaming!
High the Azore!"
Captain Slocum, the navigator, tells us that his progress that night was 90 miles and on course. Joshua Slocum, the writer, has revealed his ability to make a rhyme.
(Quotations are from Sailing Alone Around the World, by Joshua Slocum.)
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Last Updated August 26, 1998 by Col. Donn C. Slocum