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.
Since its invention in 1759, a mariner's most prized possession has been the sextant. A navigation tool that measures the angle between a celestial object and the horizon, the sextant allowed sailors to pinpoint their exact location at sea.
David Barrie chronicles the sextant's development and shows how it not only saved the lives of navigators in wild and dangerous seas, but played a pivotal role in their ability to map the globe. He synthesizes centuries of seafaring history and the daring sailors who have become legend, including James Cook, Matthew Flinders, Robert Fitz-Roy, Frank Worsley of the Endurance, and Joshua Slocum, the redoubtable old "lunarian" and first single-handed-round-the-world yachtsman. He also recounts his own maiden voyage, and insights gleaned from his experiences as a practiced seaman and navigator.
Full of heroism, danger, and excitement, told with an infectious sense of wonder, Sextant offers a new look at a masterful achievement that changed the course of history.
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.
Review :
"As lovingly and painstakingly constructed as the navigators' one irreplaceable talisman... this 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, its verniers and lenses kept secure in a mahogany box, closed by a hasp of brass." - SIMON WINCHESTER, author of the New York Times bestselling The Men Who United the States and The Professor and the Madman
"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
"Barrie learned to navigate by sextant and uses the experience to relate the stirring history of 'generations of astronomers, mathematicians, and instrument makers who brought celestial navigation to perfection.' ... The book... is an elegy to the days when Barrie felt himself 'a transient speck of life, fixing my position on the surface of our small planet by taking the measure of vast, unimaginably distant suns.'" - The New Yorker
