★★★☆☆ The Cruise of the Snark, Penguin Classics edition, by Jack London, R.D. Madison
An attempted sail around the world
The Cruise of the Snark, Penguin Classics edition
Jack London
Introduction and notes by R.D. Madison
An attempted sail around the world
In 1893 and 1895, Joshua Slocum, an experienced mariner, refitted the derelict sloop Spray. In between 1895 and 1898, he sailed the Spray around the world, alone. On the way he gave lectures with slides. He published his journals in 1900 as Sailing Alone around the World. He was the first, but not the last. It is a feat that has been repeated many times since, and a challenge that experienced sailors still like to take on. Obviously, it is not the feat in the 21st century that it was at the end of the 19th. Modern sailors, even if they intend not to use them, have such modern conveniences as Global Positioning, radios, and even satellite phones. Sailing vessels have not stood still either.
In his heart of hearts, London identified as a sailor. He grew up on or hear the San Francisco Bay. At the age of 13 he bought out an Oyster Pirate and earned a living as a pirate on the Bay. After wrecking the Razzle-Dazzle, he switched sides and joined the California Fish Patrol. Still a teenager he signed on the sealing schooner Sophie Sutherland as an Able Seaman and sailed with her to Japan. He did not merit the title of Able Seaman when he signed on, but by the time he returned he did.
After that he had more adventures, including secondary school and a year at the University of California Berkeley. In 1897 (age 21) he traveled to Alaska in the Klondike gold rush. London was one of the few prospectors to make a financial success of the gold rush -- not as a gold miner, but as an author. His best-known works (The Call of the Wild, White Fang, and To Build a Fire) are derived from that time. He became wealthy by selling books and stories. His most famous story of the sea, The Sea Wolf, came later.
Slocum inspired Jack London to sail around the world. To attempt to sail around the world, I should say. The Cruise of the Snark is his account of that attempt. The building of The Snark began in San Francisco in 1906. London tells us that "The morning her iron keel was to be cast was the morning of the great earthquake." (In fact, we owe one of the best accounts of the quake of 1906 to London.) San Francisco was cast into anarchy in the aftermath, and it was impossible to complete the Snark there. Instead, he sailed "the shell of her" to Hawaii, to be completed there.
London did not sail alone. With him were his wife Charmian and a small crew. I believe with London and Charmian they totaled half a dozen. Hawaii and various South Sea islands are described in Idyllic terms, until the Solomon Islands. There London became embroiled in fights with indigenous peoples. (I don't entirely understand how that came about.) Also, every member of the crew became seriously ill with Solomon Island sores, yaws, and fevers.
London became too sick to continue the cruise of the Snark. He and Charmian traveled to Australia by commercial steamer where he was treated but not cured. They returned home to California (again, by steamer) in 1911, and he claims that California cured him. Given that he died of kidney failure in 1916, there is some room to doubt that this cure was complete.
The Cruise of the Snark is far from London's best work. But if you want to understand the man, this and John Barleycorn: Alcoholic Memoirs are essential reading.
This Penguin Classics edition is introduced and annotated by R.D. Madison. It puzzles me that anyone thought it a good idea to put The Cruise of the Snark in the hands of an editor who clearly despises London. Madison goes so far as to admit that The Call of the Wild is a rather good novel, but no further.