Synopses & Reviews
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.
Review
“As lovingly and painstakingly constructed as the navigators one irreplaceable talisman, David Barries 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” < b=""> SIMON WINCHESTER <> , author of the < i=""> New York Times <> bestselling < i=""> The Men Who United the States <> and < i=""> The Professor and the Madman <>
Review
“Beneath the books calm surface churns a melancholic message about how the comfort of technology symbolized by the sextants almighty antagonist, GPS has turned our gaze away from the stars.” Entertainment Weekly
Review
“Even for armchair adventurers with no sea legs to speak of, Barries Sextant is a compelling read.” Shelf Awareness
About the Author
David Barrie was educated at Bryanston School and Oxford University. He started sailing at an early age and gained extensive racing and cruising experience in bigger boats while still a teenager. In 1973 he cruised the coasts of Maine and Nova Scotia before crossing the Atlantic in the thirty-five-foot yacht Saecwen. Barrie became a member of the British Diplomatic Service in 1975, where he was involved in relations with South Africa and the United States, and in negotiations that paved the way for the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland. Since leaving government service, he has worked in the arts and as a law reform campaigner. The great-great-nephew of J. M. Barrie, he is married with two daughters.