Joshua Slocum

Born in Nova Scotia in 1844, he went to sea young and spent much of his life working as a mariner and ship captain. He became famous after rebuilding the sloop Spray and sailing it alone around the world from 1895 to 1898, a feat that made him an international celebrity.

He later told the story in Sailing Alone Around the World, a memoir that helped secure his place in maritime history. Readers still remember him for the plainspoken, adventurous way he wrote about storms, repairs, strange ports, and the long discipline of handling a small vessel alone.

In 1909, he set out again in the Spray and disappeared at sea. That unsolved ending, together with the remarkable voyage that came before it, has kept his story vivid for generations of sailors and armchair travelers alike.