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 … 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.
more
It takes a certain kind of geek to be interested in an item such as the sextant. As a air force navigator I am once such person and I found the book fascinating. I would encourage anyone who is curious about such things as charts and travel and navigating to give it a read. The author does a nice job of tying together the historical aspects to his …
I loved this book because I was interested In the historical background of how they mapped the oceans, developed the sextant and how it’s used to plot your course. It was an amazing book with so
Much historical and scientific research. Every sailor should read this book as they begin to reach out away from shores!
a good, brief history of the development of celestial navigation and the mapping of the world.
I think it would be a good choice for elective reading in AP Science or History.
I began this book thinking I would learn a little bit about the sextant and sailing. It is way more than that. It’s a well-researched history of explorers and navigation with a focus on how they did what they did. It was FASCINATING. And it was all wrapped within the author’s sailing a smallish boat across the Atlantic. This is an excellent book.
I am interested in navigational techniques and found this book to be both informative, instructional and pleasant reading.
the author blended the present with the past very well and gave a very good glimpse into the difficulties and challenges of ancient sea navigation.
While I’ve started reading a number of books with more engaging topics than the sextant, many of them just didn’t hold my interest because they were poorly written. “Sextant” pulled me right along because of the writer’s style and pattern of development. A huge plus were diagrams that described the principles involved in celestial navigation. …
This book explained what the early explorers had to put up with antiquated equipment. It is amazing how they ventured around the oceans to discover news lands and found their way back. A very informative read.
Great read, very informative.
Non-faction sea story which you will lern the history of navigation at sea.
Interesting blend of history and personal experience. Provided a rare insight into the problems early world explorers faced.
Interesting treatment of sailing. For someone who knows almost nothing about sailing, this book opens a great perspective. There is some history of nav instruments which is interesting. However, I had hoped there would be in-depth treatment of the sextant, which there is not.
It was a well researched, educational, and interesting read
Being an old sailor, I found this book informative and easy to read. Great stories of early navigators are weaved into the main story of the author, David Barrie, helping his uncle sail a sailboat from North America back to England.
A first rate work, on an important subject: celestial navigation, but written so that a layman can understand the principles. The use of such instruments has waned with the coming of GPS (the subject is no longer taught at the US Naval Academy!) but the mental discipline and the skills involved are significant, and it’s still possible to navigate …