Sextant

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

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David Barrie: Sextant (2014, HarperCollins Publishers)

English language

Published Dec. 4, 2014 by HarperCollins Publishers.

ISBN:
978-0-06-227936-1
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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.

5 editions

Review of 'Sextant' on 'Goodreads'

The book was quite good, but not exactly what I expected. I expected more of a semi-technical introduction and history of sextants. What we got was a high level overview of their workings and a small history of their development. This was couched in a much larger overview of the great exploratory voyages of the 18th and 19th centuries where sextants were critical in their navigation.

And that was not bad, just not exactly what I was expecting.

Subjects

  • Nautical astronomy
  • Navigation, history