SCHOLARS EXAMINE REMARKABLE PIECE OF CANADIAN HISTORY
When John Voss and Norman Luxton set sail from Victoria in 1901, they were out to make history and money.
Headed for the South Pacific in a modified Nuu-chah-nulth whaling canoe, these two quintessentially late-victorian hustlers, adventurers, and explorers planned on circling the globe, setting records for small craft circumnavigation and making some money.
Forty thousand miles at sea and three and a half years later, their craft, the Tilikum made it as far as London. At that point, Voss, although he had not completed the final legs of travel that would have brought him and his craft back to Victoria, could credibly claim to have nearly circled the globe in the smallest craft ever used for such a voyage.
Luxton jumped ship when the Tilikum reached the South Pacific, and Voss sailed on, often accompanied by other companions, including one who disappeared from the deck of the modified canoe on the high seas. Luxton, who had fallen out with Voss during his own time on board, suggested the sea captain had murdered the young man who replaced him.
Luxton, a journalist of sorts, believed he had been promised exclusive rights to the Tilikum story in return for his participation. He resented the fact Voss published a book about the voyage first.
Voss’s book, The Venturesome Voyages of Captain Voss: Around the World in the Tilikum, 1901, differs in many details from the account Luxton prepared for his family.
John M. Macfarlane and Lynne J. Salmon, both scholars associated with the Maritime Museum of British Columbia, do admirable work in their book, Around the World in a Dugout Canoe, identifying where the two accounts differ and determining what independent evidence has to say about the disputed facts. It is not always possible to come to final conclusions, and where that is the case, the authors are frank about the outstanding uncertainties.
The authors have illuminated a remarkable and little known piece of Canadian history with this intriguing book. It will appeal to maritime history buffs and to general readers. It would make a compelling movie.