The Conquest of the Ocean
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- €8.99
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- €8.99
Publisher Description
A captivating read spanning 5,000 years of the ocean's history
Conquest of the Ocean tells the 5,000 year history of the remarkable individuals who sailed seas, for trade, to conquer new lands, to explore the unknown. From the early Polynesians to the first circumnavigations by the Portuguese and the British, these are awe-inspiring tales of epic sea voyages involving great feats of seamanship, navigation, endurance, and ingenuity. Explore the lives and maritime adventures, many with first person narratives, of land seekers and globe charters such as Christopher Columbus, Captain James Cook and Vitus Bering.
Brian Lavery is a well-known British naval historian, whose prestigious credits include historical consultant on the blockbuster, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. This narrative history is filled with paintings, logbooks, maps, sketches and diagrams that bring these events and locations to life. In this digital version cross-references are linked directly to relevant paragraphs for easy navigation within the book.
Conquest of the Ocean beautifully intertwines informative images with fascinating stories of expedition and exploration in a way that has never been done before. Brian Lavery will have you engrossed in this extraordinary historic naval read.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Lavery (All Hands) presents a choppy survey of humanity's history on the seas in this far-ranging volume. The prolific British maritime historian begins about 30,000 years ago with Polynesian seafarers' colonization of Pacific islands and continues through to address harrowing accounts of modern-day piracy. Ports of call between these distant coasts include the treasure voyages of Ming official Zheng He, the discovery of the New World, the invention of the Fresnel lens, the Battle of Midway, and many others. Throughout the book, two-page insets highlight various technological milestones, such as the advent of the sextant and snapshots of the evolution of ships. Each receives a brief treatment and is sumptuously supplemented with maps and images. Yet like our understanding of the deep oceans themselves, Lavery's account is woefully incomplete a six-page section on whaling, for example, relies only on Captain Scoresby's accounts and fails to even mention Moby Dick or devote a single sentence to the importance of fishing over the course of human history. Similarly, the 17th-century wreck of the Batavia is treated to a whole chapter, while the fate of the Titanic is summed up in a captioned illustration and one line. This is an adequate introduction to the topic for nautical neophytes, but salty sailors should slake their thirst elsewhere. Color maps, photos, and illus. throughout.
