Sextant - by David Barrie (Paperback)

From the Back Cover

In the tradition of Dava Sobel's Longitude comes this dramatic tale of invention and discovery--an eloquent elegy to one of the most important navigational instruments ever created, and to the daring mariners who used it to explore, conquer, and map the world.

Barrie takes readers straight to the helm of some of history's most important expeditions, interweaving these heroic tales with the account of his own transatlantic passage as a young man. A heady mix of adventure, science, mathematics, and derring-do, Sextant is infused with a sense of wonder and discovery. At once a dramatic history of maritime endeavor and a love letter to the sea and sky, it is timeless storytelling at its best.

Review Quotes

"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