Sextant: A Young Man's Daring Sea Voyage and the Men Who Mapped the World's Oceans

by David Barrie

Overview

In the tradition of Dava Sobel's Longitude comes this dramatic tale of invention and discovery—an eloquent elegy to one of the most important navigational instruments ever created, and to the daring mariners who used it to explore, conquer, and map the world.

Barrie takes readers straight to the helm of some of history's most important expeditions, interweaving these heroic tales with the account of his own transatlantic passage as a young man. A heady mix of adventure, science, mathematics, and derring-do, Sextant is infused with a sense of wonder and discovery. At once a dramatic history of maritime endeavor and a love letter to the sea and sky, it is timeless storytelling at its best.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062279354
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	05/05/2015
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

David Barrie has sailed in many different parts of the world and made many long passages. After serving in the British Diplomatic Service, Barrie worked in the arts and as a law reform campaigner. The great-great-nephew of J. M. Barrie, he is married with two daughters.

Table of Contents

Introduction xiii

1 Setting Sail 1

2 First Sight 13

3 The Origins of the Sextant 22

4 Bligh's Boat Journey 36

5 Anson's Ordeals 45

6 The Marine Chronometer 57

7 Celestial Timekeeping 72

8 Captain Cook Charts the Pacific 85

9 Bougainville in the South Seas 109

16 La Pérouse Vanishes 122

11 The Travails of George Vancouver 137

12 Flinders-Coasting Australia 157

13 Flinders-Shipwreck and Captivity 177

14 Voyages of the Beagle 193

15 Slocum Circles the World 218

16 Endurance 239

17 "These Are Men" 251

18 Two Landfalls 267

Epilogue 279

Acknowledgments 289

Notes 293

Glossary 309

Bibliography 313

Illustrations 319

Index 321

Editorial Reviews

As lovingly and painstakingly constructed as the navigators’ one irreplaceable talisman, David Barrie’s exquisite book is a hymn to a now-vanishing feature of maritime life, a finely-chased reminder of just how much we all owe to that one small piece of apparatus” — SIMON WINCHESTER, author of the New York Times bestselling The Men Who United the States and The Professor and the Madman

“Beneath the book’s calm surface churns a melancholic message about how the comfort of technology — symbolized by the sextant’s almighty antagonist, GPS — has turned our gaze away from the stars.” — Entertainment Weekly

“Even for armchair adventurers with no sea legs to speak of, Barrie’s Sextant is a compelling read.” — Shelf Awareness

From the Publisher

Beneath the book’s calm surface churns a melancholic message about how the comfort of technology — symbolized by the sextant’s almighty antagonist, GPS — has turned our gaze away from the stars.

Entertainment Weekly

Even for armchair adventurers with no sea legs to speak of, Barrie’s Sextant is a compelling read.

Shelf Awareness

As lovingly and painstakingly constructed as the navigators’ one irreplaceable talisman, David Barrie’s exquisite book is a hymn to a now-vanishing feature of maritime life, a finely-chased reminder of just how much we all owe to that one small piece of apparatus

SIMON WINCHESTER