William Collins
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First published in Great Britain by William Collins in 2014
Copyright © David Barrie 2014
Maps © Nicolette Caven
David Barrie asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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Source ISBN: 9780007516568
Ebook Edition 2014 ISBN: 9780007516575
Version: 2015-05-16
To the memory of my father, Alexander Ogilvy Barrie (1910–1969), who first showed me the stars, and of Colin McMullen (1907–1991), who taught me to steer by them.
Contents
Chapter 3: The Origins of the Sextant
Chapter 4: Bligh’s Boat Journey
Chapter 6: The Marine Chronometer
Chapter 7: Celestial Timekeeping
Chapter 8: Captain Cook Charts the Pacific
Chapter 9: Bougainville in the South Seas
Chapter 10: La Pérouse Vanishes
Chapter 11: The Travails of George Vancouver
Chapter 12: Flinders – Coasting Australia
Chapter 13: Flinders – Shipwreck and Captivity
Chapter 14: Voyages of the Beagle
Chapter 15: Slocum Circles the World
Crossing an ocean under sail today is not an especially risky undertaking. Accurate offshore navigation – for so long an impossible dream – has now been reduced to the press of a button, and most modern yachts are strong enough to survive all but the most extreme weather. Even if errors, accidents or hurricanes should put a boat in danger, radio communications give the crew a good chance of being rescued. Few sailors now lose their lives on the open ocean: crowded inshore waters where the risk of collision is high are far more hazardous.
But it was not always so. When a young man called Álvaro de Mendaña set sail from Peru in November 1567 to cross the Pacific with two