Joshua Slocum spent a lifetime at sea. He ran away from his Nova Scotia home at the age of 14, and for the next 35 years he sailed the world holding every shipboard rank. When a ship under his command was wrecked on the coast of Brazil in 1887, it seemed that his maritime career had ended in disgrace. Not one for retiring to earthy pastures, Slocum rebuilt a hundred-year old sloop and set off from Boston in 1895 on the first single-handed circumnavigation of the globe. For more than three years, Slocum battled stormy seas, attacks from raiders and pirates, and of course, loneliness. He crossed the Atlantic no fewer than three times, spent weeks thrashing against the elements around Cape Horn, and found shelter in numerous exotic harbours. [i]Sailing Alone around the World[/i] is the extraordinary story of one man's courage and resourcefulness, and has an enduring and universal appeal as a landmark of world adventure. Stanfords Travel Classics feature some of the finest historical travel writing in the English language, with authors hailing from both sides of the Atlantic. Every title has been rest in a contemporary typeface and has been printed to a high quality production specification, to create a series that every lover of fine travel literature will want to collect and keep.