December 11, 1900 – Captain Joshua Slocums’ “Spray” beached at Castillo Chicos, about seven miles south of the dividing-line of Uruguay and Brazil. A boy and his horse came to Joshua’s aide, “Buenos dias, muchacho,” Joshua later offering to trade ship biscuits for butter and milk. The boy quickly returned with butter, milk, eggs and others, old and young, from neighboring ranches, among them a German settler, who was of great assistance. With the help of the German and one soldier and one Italian, called “Angel of Milan,” they floated the sloop and were sailing for port with the boom off before a fair wind.

Spray Specifications: Class and type: oyster fisherman – Length: 39 feet 9 inches – Beam: 14 feet 2 inches – Depth of hold: 4 feet 2 inches – Tons burthen: 12.71 (9 tons empty) – Propulsion: sail only – Sail plan: sloop; yawl after 1885 – Complement: 1

References:

From Sailing Alone Around the World, By Captain Joshua Slocum, 1900 – TO THE ONE WHO SAID:”THE ‘Spray’ WILL COME BACK.”

*Noteworthy

1620 – 103 Mayflower pilgrims land at Plymouth Rock

1913 – “Mona Lisa” recovered from the Hotel Tripoli-Italia,(now the Hotel La Gioconda) on the Via de’ Panzani, 28 months after it was stolen by Vincenzo Perugia. Read Vanity Fair – Stealing Mona Lisa

1936 – Britain’s King Edward VIII abdicates in order to marry a twice divorced American, Wallis Warfield Simpson. Edward VIII became the first English monarch to voluntarily abdicate the throne.

1941 – Germany declares war on the United States