July 25, 2025 • 10 mins
Immerse yourself in the captivating tales of Jack and Charmian Londons adventurous journey across the Pacific between 1907 and 1909, detailed in The Cruise of the Snark. This memoir not only introduces and popularizes the royal sport of surf-riding but also vividly depicts the thrill and beauty of the Pacific. Experience the exhilarating rush of riding the crest of a breaker, the sensation of being flung landward by the powerful sea, and the challenge of trying to match the skill of a Kanaka on a surf-board. This striking narrative captures the essence of living life to the fullest, promising a reading experience as invigorating as the pounding surf.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The backward of the crews of the Snark. This is
a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
Recording by k The Crews of the Snark by Jack
London backward. The Snark was forty three feet on the
(00:20):
water line and fifty five overall, with fifteen foot beam
tumble home sides and seven feet eight inches draft. She
was catch rigged carrying flying jib jib, four staysail, mainsail,
mizzen and spinnaker. There were six feet of head room below,
and she was crown decked and flush decked. There were
(00:40):
four alleged water tight compartments. A seventy horse power auxiliary
gas engine sporadically furnished locomotion at an approximate cost of
twenty dollars per mile. A five horse power engine ran
the pumps when it was in order, and on two
occasions proved capable of furnishing juice for the search light.
The storage batteries worked four to five times in the
(01:02):
course of two years. The fourteen foot launch was rumored
to work at times, but it invariably broke down whenever
I stepped on board, but the Snark sailed. It was
the only way she could get anywhere. She sailed for
two years and never touched rock, reef nor shoal. She
had no inside ballast. Her iron keel weighed five tons,
but her deep draft and high freeboard made her very stiff.
(01:25):
Caught on her full sail in tropic squalls, she buried
her rail and deck many times, but stubbornly refused to
turn turtle. She steered easily, and she could run day
and night without steering close by full and by, and
with the wind a beam. With the wind on her quarter,
the sails properly trimmed, she steered herself within two points,
(01:48):
and with the wind almost astern, she required scarcely three
points for self steering. The Snark was built in San Francisco.
The morning her iron keel was to be gast was
the morning of the Great earth quake, then Game Anarchy,
six months overdue in the building, I sailed the shell
of her to Hawaii to be finished. The engine lashed
to the bottom, building materials lash on deck. Had I
(02:11):
remained in San Francisco for completion, I'd still be there
as it was partly built. She cost four times what
she ought to have cost the Snark was born. Unfortunately,
she was libeled in San Francisco, had her checks protested
as fraudulent in Hawaii, and was fined for a breach
of quarantine in the Solomons. To save themselves, the newspapers
(02:32):
could not tell the truth about her. When I discharged
an incompetent captain, they said I had beaten him to
a pulp. When one young man returned home to continue
at college, it was reported that I was a regular
wolf Larsen, and that my whole crew had deserted because
I had beaten it to a pulp. In fact, the
only blow struck on the Snark was when the cook
was man handled by a captain who had shipped with
(02:54):
me under false pretenses and whom I discharged in Fiji.
Also also so charmain and I boxed for exercise, but
neither of us was seriously maimed. The voyage was our
idea of a good time. I built the Snark and
paid for it and for all expenses. I contracted to
write thirty five thousand words descriptive of the trip for
a magazine which was to pay me the same rate
(03:16):
I received for stories written at home. Promptly, the magazine
advertised that it was sending me, especially around the world
for itself. It was a wealthy magazine, and every man
who had business dealings with the Snark charged three prices
because forsooth the magazine could afford it. Down in the
uttermost south Sea isle, this myth obtained and I paid accordingly.
(03:39):
To this day, everybody believes that the magazine paid for everything,
and that I made a fortune out of the voyage.
It is hard, after such advertising to hammer it into
the human understanding that the whole voyage was done for
the fun of it. I went to Australia to go
into hospital, where I spent five weeks. I spent five
months miserably sick in hotels. The mysterious malady that afflicted
(04:01):
my hands was too much for the Australian specialists. It
was unknown in the literature of medicine. No case like
it had ever been reported. It extended from my hands
to my feet, so that at times I was as
helpless as a child. On occasions, my hands were twice
their natural size, with seven dead and dying skins peeling off.
At the same time, there were times when my toe
(04:24):
nails in twenty four hours grew as thick as they
were long after filing them off. Inside another twenty four
hours they were as thick as before. The Australian specialists
agreed that the malady was non parasitic, and that therefore
it must be nervous. It did not mend, and it
was impossible for me to continue the voyage. The only
way I could have continued it would have been by
(04:46):
being lashed in my bunk, For in my helpless condition,
unable to clutch with my hands, I could not have
moved about on a small rolling boat. Also, I said
to myself that while there were many boats and many voyages,
I had but one pair of hands and one set
of toe nails. Still, further, I reasoned that in my
own climate of California, I had always maintained a stable
(05:07):
nervous equilibrium. So back I came. Since my return, I
have completely recovered, and I have found out what was
the matter with me. I encountered a book by Lieutenant
Colonel Charles E. Woodruff of the United States entitled Effect
of Tropical Light on White Men. Then I knew. Later
I met Colonel Woodruff and learned that he had been
(05:30):
similarly afflicted himself an Army surgeon. Seventeen Army surgeons sat
on his case in the Philippines, and, like the Australian specialists,
confessed themselves beaten. In brief, I had a strong predisposition
towards the tissue destructiveness of tropical light. I was being
torn to pieces by the ultraviolet rays, just as my
(05:52):
many experimenters with the X rays have been torn to pieces.
In passing, I may mention that among the other afflictions
that jointly compelled the abandonment of the voyage was one
that is variously called the healthy man's disease, European leprosy
and Biblical leprosy. Unlike true leprosy, nothing is known of
(06:14):
this mysterious malady. No doctor has ever claimed a cure
for a case of it, though spontaneous cures are recorded
it comes. They know not how it is, they know
not what it goes. They know not why, without the
use of drugs, merely by living in the wholesome California climate,
(06:34):
my silvery skin vanished. The only hope the doctors had
held out to me was a spontaneous cure, and such
a cure was mine a last word, the test of
the voyage. It is easy enough for me or any
man to say that it was enjoyable. But there is
a better witness, the one woman who made it from
(06:54):
beginning to end. In hospital. When I broke the news
to Charmaine that I must go back to California, the
tears welled in her eyes for two days. She was
wrecked and broken by the knowledge that the happy, Happy
voyage was abandoned. Signed in Glen Allen, California, April seventh,
nineteen eleven, footnotes number one. To point out that we
(07:18):
of the Snark are not a crowd of weaklings, which
might be concluded from our diverse afflictions. I quote the following,
which glean verbatim from Eugenie's log, and which may be
considered a sample of Solomon Island's cruising Oulava. Thursday, March twelfth,
nineteen o eight. Boat went ashore in the morning, got
(07:39):
two loads ivory nut, four thousand copra. Skipper down with
the fever Ulava. Friday, March thirteenth, nineteen o eight, buying
nuts from bushmen one point five ton mate and skipper
down with fever Ulava Saturday March fourteenth, nineteen o eight
at noon, hove up and proceed with a very light
(08:01):
east northeast wind for Nogora. Nogora anchored in five fathoms
shelling coral mate down with fever, Nongora, Agora. Sunday March fifteenth,
nineteen oh eight. At daybreak, found that the boy Bagua
had died during the night on dysentery. He was about
fourteen days sick. At sunset, big northwest squall, second anchor ready,
(08:25):
lasting one hour and thirty minutes. At sea Monday March sixteenth,
nineteen oh eight, set course for Sikhanya at four p m.
Wind broke off heavy squalls during the night. Skipper down
with dysentery. Also one man at sea Tuesday, March seventeenth,
nineteen oh eight. Skipper and two crew down with dysentery,
(08:47):
mate fever at sea Wednesday, March eighteenth, nineteen oh eight,
Big Sea Lee rail underwater all the time, ship under reefed, mainsail,
staysail and inner jib sk ppper and three men dysentery
mate fever at sea Thursday March nineteenth, nineteen o eight,
too thick to see anything blowing a gale all the time,
(09:10):
pump plugged and baling with buckets. Skipper and five boys
down with dysentery at sea Friday March twentieth, nineteen o
eight during night squalls with hurricane force. Skipper and six
men down on dysentery at sea. Saturday, March twenty first,
nineteen o eight, turn back from Sikiana squalls all day
(09:31):
with heavy rain and sea, Skipper and best part of
crew on dysentery, mate fever, and so day by day
with the majority of all on board prostrated, the Eugenies
log goes on. The only variety occurred on March thirty first,
when the mate came down with dysentery and the skipper
was floored by fever. End of backward recording by k
(09:56):
end of the Cruise of the Snark by Jack London,
then Anti Radi
The backward of the crews of the Snark. This is
a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
Recording by k The Crews of the Snark by Jack
London backward. The Snark was forty three feet on the
(00:20):
water line and fifty five overall, with fifteen foot beam
tumble home sides and seven feet eight inches draft. She
was catch rigged carrying flying jib jib, four staysail, mainsail,
mizzen and spinnaker. There were six feet of head room below,
and she was crown decked and flush decked. There were
(00:40):
four alleged water tight compartments. A seventy horse power auxiliary
gas engine sporadically furnished locomotion at an approximate cost of
twenty dollars per mile. A five horse power engine ran
the pumps when it was in order, and on two
occasions proved capable of furnishing juice for the search light.
The storage batteries worked four to five times in the
(01:02):
course of two years. The fourteen foot launch was rumored
to work at times, but it invariably broke down whenever
I stepped on board, but the Snark sailed. It was
the only way she could get anywhere. She sailed for
two years and never touched rock, reef nor shoal. She
had no inside ballast. Her iron keel weighed five tons,
but her deep draft and high freeboard made her very stiff.
(01:25):
Caught on her full sail in tropic squalls, she buried
her rail and deck many times, but stubbornly refused to
turn turtle. She steered easily, and she could run day
and night without steering close by full and by, and
with the wind a beam. With the wind on her quarter,
the sails properly trimmed, she steered herself within two points,
(01:48):
and with the wind almost astern, she required scarcely three
points for self steering. The Snark was built in San Francisco.
The morning her iron keel was to be gast was
the morning of the Great earth quake, then Game Anarchy,
six months overdue in the building, I sailed the shell
of her to Hawaii to be finished. The engine lashed
to the bottom, building materials lash on deck. Had I
(02:11):
remained in San Francisco for completion, I'd still be there
as it was partly built. She cost four times what
she ought to have cost the Snark was born. Unfortunately,
she was libeled in San Francisco, had her checks protested
as fraudulent in Hawaii, and was fined for a breach
of quarantine in the Solomons. To save themselves, the newspapers
(02:32):
could not tell the truth about her. When I discharged
an incompetent captain, they said I had beaten him to
a pulp. When one young man returned home to continue
at college, it was reported that I was a regular
wolf Larsen, and that my whole crew had deserted because
I had beaten it to a pulp. In fact, the
only blow struck on the Snark was when the cook
was man handled by a captain who had shipped with
(02:54):
me under false pretenses and whom I discharged in Fiji.
Also also so charmain and I boxed for exercise, but
neither of us was seriously maimed. The voyage was our
idea of a good time. I built the Snark and
paid for it and for all expenses. I contracted to
write thirty five thousand words descriptive of the trip for
a magazine which was to pay me the same rate
(03:16):
I received for stories written at home. Promptly, the magazine
advertised that it was sending me, especially around the world
for itself. It was a wealthy magazine, and every man
who had business dealings with the Snark charged three prices
because forsooth the magazine could afford it. Down in the
uttermost south Sea isle, this myth obtained and I paid accordingly.
(03:39):
To this day, everybody believes that the magazine paid for everything,
and that I made a fortune out of the voyage.
It is hard, after such advertising to hammer it into
the human understanding that the whole voyage was done for
the fun of it. I went to Australia to go
into hospital, where I spent five weeks. I spent five
months miserably sick in hotels. The mysterious malady that afflicted
(04:01):
my hands was too much for the Australian specialists. It
was unknown in the literature of medicine. No case like
it had ever been reported. It extended from my hands
to my feet, so that at times I was as
helpless as a child. On occasions, my hands were twice
their natural size, with seven dead and dying skins peeling off.
At the same time, there were times when my toe
(04:24):
nails in twenty four hours grew as thick as they
were long after filing them off. Inside another twenty four
hours they were as thick as before. The Australian specialists
agreed that the malady was non parasitic, and that therefore
it must be nervous. It did not mend, and it
was impossible for me to continue the voyage. The only
way I could have continued it would have been by
(04:46):
being lashed in my bunk, For in my helpless condition,
unable to clutch with my hands, I could not have
moved about on a small rolling boat. Also, I said
to myself that while there were many boats and many voyages,
I had but one pair of hands and one set
of toe nails. Still, further, I reasoned that in my
own climate of California, I had always maintained a stable
(05:07):
nervous equilibrium. So back I came. Since my return, I
have completely recovered, and I have found out what was
the matter with me. I encountered a book by Lieutenant
Colonel Charles E. Woodruff of the United States entitled Effect
of Tropical Light on White Men. Then I knew. Later
I met Colonel Woodruff and learned that he had been
(05:30):
similarly afflicted himself an Army surgeon. Seventeen Army surgeons sat
on his case in the Philippines, and, like the Australian specialists,
confessed themselves beaten. In brief, I had a strong predisposition
towards the tissue destructiveness of tropical light. I was being
torn to pieces by the ultraviolet rays, just as my
(05:52):
many experimenters with the X rays have been torn to pieces.
In passing, I may mention that among the other afflictions
that jointly compelled the abandonment of the voyage was one
that is variously called the healthy man's disease, European leprosy
and Biblical leprosy. Unlike true leprosy, nothing is known of
(06:14):
this mysterious malady. No doctor has ever claimed a cure
for a case of it, though spontaneous cures are recorded
it comes. They know not how it is, they know
not what it goes. They know not why, without the
use of drugs, merely by living in the wholesome California climate,
(06:34):
my silvery skin vanished. The only hope the doctors had
held out to me was a spontaneous cure, and such
a cure was mine a last word, the test of
the voyage. It is easy enough for me or any
man to say that it was enjoyable. But there is
a better witness, the one woman who made it from
(06:54):
beginning to end. In hospital. When I broke the news
to Charmaine that I must go back to California, the
tears welled in her eyes for two days. She was
wrecked and broken by the knowledge that the happy, Happy
voyage was abandoned. Signed in Glen Allen, California, April seventh,
nineteen eleven, footnotes number one. To point out that we
(07:18):
of the Snark are not a crowd of weaklings, which
might be concluded from our diverse afflictions. I quote the following,
which glean verbatim from Eugenie's log, and which may be
considered a sample of Solomon Island's cruising Oulava. Thursday, March twelfth,
nineteen o eight. Boat went ashore in the morning, got
(07:39):
two loads ivory nut, four thousand copra. Skipper down with
the fever Ulava. Friday, March thirteenth, nineteen o eight, buying
nuts from bushmen one point five ton mate and skipper
down with fever Ulava Saturday March fourteenth, nineteen o eight
at noon, hove up and proceed with a very light
(08:01):
east northeast wind for Nogora. Nogora anchored in five fathoms
shelling coral mate down with fever, Nongora, Agora. Sunday March fifteenth,
nineteen oh eight. At daybreak, found that the boy Bagua
had died during the night on dysentery. He was about
fourteen days sick. At sunset, big northwest squall, second anchor ready,
(08:25):
lasting one hour and thirty minutes. At sea Monday March sixteenth,
nineteen oh eight, set course for Sikhanya at four p m.
Wind broke off heavy squalls during the night. Skipper down
with dysentery. Also one man at sea Tuesday, March seventeenth,
nineteen oh eight. Skipper and two crew down with dysentery,
(08:47):
mate fever at sea Wednesday, March eighteenth, nineteen oh eight,
Big Sea Lee rail underwater all the time, ship under reefed, mainsail,
staysail and inner jib sk ppper and three men dysentery
mate fever at sea Thursday March nineteenth, nineteen o eight,
too thick to see anything blowing a gale all the time,
(09:10):
pump plugged and baling with buckets. Skipper and five boys
down with dysentery at sea Friday March twentieth, nineteen o
eight during night squalls with hurricane force. Skipper and six
men down on dysentery at sea. Saturday, March twenty first,
nineteen o eight, turn back from Sikiana squalls all day
(09:31):
with heavy rain and sea, Skipper and best part of
crew on dysentery, mate fever, and so day by day
with the majority of all on board prostrated, the Eugenies
log goes on. The only variety occurred on March thirty first,
when the mate came down with dysentery and the skipper
was floored by fever. End of backward recording by k
(09:56):
end of the Cruise of the Snark by Jack London,
then Anti Radi
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