Languages
Currency

Sextant: A Voyage Guided by the Stars and the Men Who Mapped the World’s Oceans

SKU
HIS5249
£10.99
Available
  • FREE Delivery to UK - Spend over £75
  • FREE Delivery to Europe - Spend over £150
  • Worldwide Delivery Available
Overview

In the tradition of Dava Sobel's ‘Longitude’ comes sailing expert David Barrie's compelling and dramatic tale of invention and discovery – an eloquent elegy to one of the most important navigational instruments ever created, and the daring mariners who used it to explore, conquer, and map the world.

View full description


Product Details

Part Number: HIS5249

Edition: 2015

Printed and corrected to: No

ISBN: 9780007516582

Publisher: Harper Collins

Language: English

Author: David Barrie

Format: Paperback

In the tradition of Dava Sobel's ‘Longitude’ comes sailing expert David Barrie's compelling and dramatic tale of invention and discovery – an eloquent elegy to one of the most important navigational instruments ever created, and the daring mariners who used it to explore, conquer, and map the world.

This is the dramatic story of an instrument that changed history. Built around David Barrie’s own transatlantic passage using the very same navigational tools as Captain Cook, Sextant tells how one of the most vital navigational instruments was invented and used – and why the golden age of celestial navigation has now come to an end. From Cook, Bligh and Vancouver to Bougainville, La Pérouse, Flinders and FitzRoy, Barrie recounts the fortunes of the explorers who risked their lives in charting the Pacific, as well as the intrepid adventures of Slocum, Shackleton and Worsley. A heady mix of history, science and adventure, this elegy to a lost technology is infused with the wonder of discovery and the sublimity of the cosmos.