Other editions of book The Cruise of the Snark

Jack London had many intentional and unintentional adventures in his life. In 1907, he set out with his wife and a small crew in a ship that he had built on a voyage around the world. The voyage was cut short when London fell ill. In this book, London wrote about places that would have been exotic to his readers-Hawai'i, Tahiti and Samoa. If you like tales of adventures and exploration-this book is for you.We publish the world's books. We have the largest collection of classics, and we believe that they are the highest quality, too. Don't take our word for it, peek inside and you'll see why we brag.

The Snark had two masts and was 43 feet long at the waterline, and on it London claims to have spent thirty thousand dollars. The snark was primarily a sailboat, however, it also had an auxiliary 70-horsepower engine. It was further equipped with one lifeboat. In 1906, Author Jack London began to build a 45-foot yacht on which he planned a round-the-world voyage, to last seven years. After many delays, Jack and Charmian London and a small crew sailed out of San Francisco Bay on April 23, 1907, bound for the South Pacific

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It began in the swimming pool at Glen Ellen. Between swims it was our wont to come out and lie in the sand and let our skins breathe the warm air and soak in the sunshine. Roscoe was a yachtsman. I had followed the sea a bit. It was inevitable that we should talk about boats. We talked about small boats, and the seaworthiness of small boats. We instanced Captain Slocum and his three years‟ voyage around the world in the Spray.We asserted that we were not afraid to go around the world in a small boat, say forty feet long. We asserted furthermore that we would like to do it. We asserted finally that there was nothing in this world we‟d like better than a chance to do it.

Inspired by the examples of his heroes Herman Melville, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Joshua Slocum, Jack London determined to sail around the world. In April 1907 he sailed from San Francisco in the forty-five-foot ketch Snark, with his wife, Charmian, a skeleton crew, and his writing to keep him company. Beset by seasickness and tropical disease, London wrote incessantly—not only his major autobiographical novel Martin Eden and numerous short stories, but also a series of sketches recording the voyage itself. These entertaining pieces, collected together into the book he called The Cruise of the Snark, reveal London’s indefatigable spirit and love of adventure at sea and among the Pacific islands.

IT began in the swimming pool at Glen Ellen. Between swims it was our wont to come out and lie in the sand and let our skins breathe the warm air and soak in the sunshine. Roscoe was a yachtsman. I had followed the sea a bit. It was inevitable that we should talk about boats. We talked about small boats, and the seaworthiness of small boats. We instanced Captain Slocum and his three years’ voyage around the world in the Spray.We asserted that we were not afraid to go around the world in a small boat, say forty feet long. We asserted furthermore that we would like to do it. We asserted finally that there was nothing in this world we’d like better than a chance to do it.“Let us do it,” we said . . . in fun.Then I asked Charmian privily if she’d really care to do it, and she said that it was too good to be true.The next time we breathed our skins in the sand by the swimming pool I said to Roscoe, “Let us do it.”I was in earnest, and so was he, for he said:“When shall we start?”

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