The best books about the sea and navigation

Why this book?

South is a truly epic account of endurance and survival in the Antarctic. It describes how Shackleton and his crew stayed alive after their ship was crushed in pack ice, and how he and a handful of men crossed the wild Southern Ocean in mid-winter in a 20-foot sailing boat to bring help to those left behind. Not only did they have to cope with hurricanes and mountainous seas in freezing temperatures, but they also had to make an accurate landfall on a small island more than 800 miles away.

Even then their troubles weren't over, as they had to climb a range of high, unexplored mountains to reach help on the other side. As a sailor myself I'm awe-struck by Shackleton's voyage, and the extraordinary navigational feats it involved. If I ever think I'm having a bad day, I remember the terrible hardships that he and his men faced - and survived!

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Why this book?

Gatty was a remarkable, pioneering aviator from Tasmania and the first person to bring the art of natural navigation to a wide audience. During the Second World War, he taught navigation to US military airmen, and wrote a guide to survival at sea that was standard issue and probably saved quite a few lives: The Raft Book. Finding Your Way (which first came out in the 1950s under the title Nature Is Your Guide), builds on that earlier work and is a mine of fascinating information and anecdotes on which I drew extensively in writing Incredible Journeys.

Gatty was a real expert and discusses how all our senses can help us find our way, even in very difficult circumstances. For example, he tells of an Inuit hunter who, paddling his kayak in thick fog, was able to find the entrance of his home fjord by listening out for the song of a snow bunting! Gatty was an extraordinary man and deserves to be much better known.

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Why this book?

East Is a Big Bird is a beautiful and inspiring first-hand account of the indigenous navigators of Micronesia. Their long training enabled them to make accurate landfalls after voyages of hundreds or even thousands of miles in outrigger sailing canoes, without maps or instruments, relying only on their observational skills and wits. These skills were on the point of dying out when Gladwin studied them, and had already been lost throughout Polynesia. Gladwin played an important role in helping ensure their survival as well as their revival in places like Hawai’i and Samoa. East Is a Big Bird is both an adventure story and a moving record of Gladwin’s research.

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Why this book?

Slocum (1844-1908) was the first person to sail around the world single-handed, and his account of that three-year voyage is one of the classics of sailing literature. He built his 35-foot yacht ‘Spray’ with his own hands, having earlier served as master of several sailing ships, and set off from Gloucester, Massachusetts in 1895. Slocum was a great showman and storyteller, and was perhaps occasionally guilty of exaggeration, but there is no doubt about the scale of his achievement, and his book is a really wonderful read. It includes storms, narrow escapes from shipwreck, and some of the best descriptions of sailing - with all its ups and downs - ever written.

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Why this book?

Treasure Island is sometimes dismissed as a children’s book (as if that were a fault!) but it is in fact a perfect marine adventure story, which happens to have a young boy as its hero. Stevenson is a writer I much admire. His father was a famous lighthouse-builder and Stevenson had plenty of experience of the sea and ships, and passed his last years in Samoa (where I have visited his grave). He brilliantly evokes what life on board a sailing ship is like, and in the pirate, Long John Silver, created one of the most fascinating villains in English literature. I also admire Stevenson as a courageous, early campaigner against the abuses of colonial power.

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