Vintage Ships: Spray

"Yachtsmen pleasuring in the 'lilies of the sea' will not think favorably of my craft" ―Joshua Slocum

The Spray was a 36-foot-9-inch (11.20 m) oyster sloop which Joshua Slocum rebuilt and single-handedly sailed around the world, the first voyage of its kind. The Spray was lost with Captain Slocum aboard sometime on or after November 14, 1909, after sailing from Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts, bound for South America.

In 1892, a friend, Captain Eben Pierce, offered Slocum a ship that "wants some repairs". Slocum went to Fairhaven, Massachusetts, to find that the "ship" was a rotting old oyster sloop named Spray, propped-up in a field. Despite the major overhaul of the ship, Slocum kept her name Spray, noting, "Now, it is a law in Lloyd's that the Jane repaired all out of the old until she is entirely new is still the Jane."

Its days as a fishing boat, probably as a Chesapeake Bay oysterman, had come to an end by 1885, and it was a derelict, a slowly deteriorating hulk sitting in a makeshift ship's-cradle in a seaside meadow on Poverty Point in Fairhaven, Massachusetts when Captain Eben Pierce of that town offered it to Joshua Slocum as a gift. Slocum came to Fairhaven to look at the Spray (a sorry sight that it was), and he undertook to repair and refit it over the next thirteen months. The materials used for the repairs cost $553.62, equivalent to $15,754 in 2019.

After setting off around the world in 1895 the boom was shortened after it broke and in 1896 Slocum reduced the height of the mast by 7 feet and the length of the bowsprit by 5 feet while in Buenos Aires. In Port Angosto, Strait of Magellan, the Spray was re-rigged as a yawl by adding a jigger. In 1901 the Spray was an attraction at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York.

One of the most remarkable things about Spray was her ability to run before the wind under her regular fore-and-aft rig with the helm lashed and hold her course for hours or days on end. If Spray had not had this ability, Slocum's performance would have been a physical impossibility.

Name: Spray

Class and type: Oyster fisherman

Fate: Lost at sea sometime on or after November 14, 1909; cause unknown

Tons burthen: 12.71 (9 tons empty)

Length: 36 feet 9 inches

Beam: 14 feet 2 inches

Depth of hold: 4 feet 2 inches

Propulsion: Sail only

After purchase, you will have access to the 1080*1080 mp4, 4000x4000px jpg, 4000x4000px png(Can be printed and hung on the wall.), and GIF file.

Thank you for your purchase!