Compass: A Story of Exploration and Innovation - Couverture rigide

Gurney, Alan

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0393050734 ISBN 13 : 9780393050738

Editeur : WW Norton & Co, 2004

Synopsis

The fascinating and disaster-strewn history of the search to perfect the essential navigational device. This book chronicles the misadventures of those who attempted to perfect the compass, an instrument so precious to sixteenth-century seamen that, by law, any man found tampering with it had his hand pinned to the mast with a dagger. From the time man first took to the seas until only one thousand years ago, sight and winds were the sailor's only navigational aids. It was not until the development of the compass that maps and charts could be used with any accuracyeven so, it would be hundreds of years and thousands of shipwrecks before the marvelous instrument was perfected. And its history up to modern times is filled with the stories of disasters that befell sailors who misused it. In this wonderfully written book, Alan Gurney brings to life the instrument Victor Hugo called "the soul of the ship."

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

Alan Gurney was a former yacht designer and photographer. His books include Compass, The Race to the White Continent, and Below the Convergence: Voyages Toward Antarctica: 1699–1839.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: WW Norton & Co
• Date d'édition: 2004
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0393050734
• ISBN 13: 9780393050738
• Reliure: Relié
• Numéro d'édition: 1
• Nombre de pages: 320
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible