Editing Joshua Slocum (section)

==Early life at sea==
From Dublin, he crossed to [[Liverpool]] to become an ordinary seaman on the British [[merchant ship]] ''Tangier'' (also recorded as ''Tanjore''), bound for China. During two years as a seaman he rounded [[Cape Horn]] twice, landed at [[Jakarta|Batavia]] (now Jakarta) in the [[Dutch East Indies]], and visited the [[Maluku Islands]], [[Manila]], Hong Kong, [[Saigon]], Singapore, and San Francisco. While at sea, he studied for the [[Board of Trade]] examination, and, at the age of eighteen, he received his certificate as a fully qualified [[Second Mate]]. Slocum quickly rose through the ranks to become a [[Chief Mate]] on British ships transporting coal and grain between the British Isles and San Francisco.

In 1865, he settled in San Francisco, became an American citizen, and, after a period spent [[salmon]] fishing and [[fur trading]] in the [[Oregon Territory]] of the northwest, he returned to the sea to pilot a schooner in the coastal trade between San Francisco and [[Seattle]]. His first blue-water command, in 1869, was the [[barque]] ''Washington'', which he took across the Pacific, from San Francisco to Australia, and home via [[Alaska]].

He sailed for thirteen years out of the port of San Francisco, transporting mixed cargo to China, Australia, the [[Maluku Islands|Spice Islands]], and Japan. Between 1869 and 1889 he was the master of eight vessels, the first four of which (the ''Washington'', the ''Constitution'', the ''Benjamin Aymar'' and the ''Amethyst'') he commanded in the employ of others. Later, there would be four others that he himself owned, in whole or in part.