In "Vitus Bering: the Discoverer of Bering Strait," Peter Lauridsen presents an incisive exploration of the life and expeditions of Vitus Bering, whose name is inextricably linked to the geographical marvel of the Bering Strait. This meticulously researched biography interweaves historical narrative with a rich analysis of 18th-century maritime exploration, filled with vivid descriptions and a clear prose style that renders complex navigational challenges comprehensible. Lauridsen deftly s...

In "Vitus Bering: the Discoverer of Bering Strait," Peter Lauridsen provides a meticulously researched account of the life and expeditions of the Russian navigator Vitus Bering. This engaging narrative blends biographical elements with a historical analysis of the 18th-century explorations that reshaped European perceptions of the Pacific. Lauridsen's scholarly approach is complemented by a rich literary style that brings to life the trials and triumphs of Bering's voyages, set against the...

In the era of the great geographic discoveries, the greatest countries of the world competed for the right to set their rule on the newly discovered territories. Virtus Bering was one of the heroic explorers into the north of the Russian Siberia, who, thanks to the acknowledgment of Sir James Cook, is considered the pioneer of the Bering Strait. Vitus Bering (1681-1741) was a Danish cartographer and explorer who served Russia as an officer in the Russian Navy and later as the lead in two m...

Russian Explorations, 1725-1743Vitus Bering: The Discoverer of Bering StraitThis edition features• illustrations• a linked Table of Contents, Footnotes, and IndexCONTENTSLieut. Schwatka's IntroductionTranslator's PrefaceAuthor's PrefacePART I.BERING'S FIRST EXPEDITION.Chapter I.Russia and England in the work of Arctic exploration.—Vitus Bering's rank as an explorerChapter II.Bering's nativit...

This companion for fans of the Napoleonic sea sagas offers maps of the novels' streets, seas, and coasts, and much more.The tall-masted sailing ships of the early nineteenth century were the technological miracles of their day, allowing their crews to traverse the seas with greater speed than had ever been possible before. Novelist Patrick O'Brian captured the thrill of that era with his characters Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, who visited exotic locales in the ...

First published in 1814. "The publication in 1814 of a voyage commenced in 1801, and of which all the essential parts were concluded within three years, requires some explanation. Shipwreck and a long imprisonment prevented my arrival in England until the latter end of 1810; much had then been done to forward the account, and the charts in particular were nearly prepared for the engraver; but it was desirable that the astronomical observations, upon which so much depended, should undergo a...

Cook's great voyages marked the end of an era in world history. As he sailed into Hawaii in January 1778 he made contact with the last of the human civilizations to grow up independently of the rest of the world. But equally for the Polynesians and Melanesians of the Pacific, Cook's arrival in their midst merely marked a further (if disastrous) twist in diverse histories already many centuries old.In this immensely enjoyable and absorbing book Cook's journeys are reimagined, attemp...

The Garifuna people today live all along the Caribbean littoral of Central America, from Belize, through Guatemala and Honduras down to Nicaragua, and also in some of the biggest cities of the United States. For more than two hundred years they have preserved their unique culture and language--the direct descendant of that spoken in the islands at the time of Columbus. All of them, however, trace their origin back to the island of St. Vincent--Youroumaÿn in their own language--where shipwr...

On the great Pacific discovery expeditions of the “long eighteenth century,” naturalists for the first time were commonly found aboard ships sailing forth from European ports. Lured by intoxicating opportunities to discover exotic and perhaps lucrative flora and fauna unknown at home, these men set out eagerly to collect and catalogue, study and document an uncharted natural world.   This enthralling book is the first to describe the adventures and misadventures,...

According to Wikipedia: "Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the mainland of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous other islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.N4 Neighbouring countries include Indonesia, East Timor, and Papua New Guinea to the north, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and New Caledonia to the north-east, and New Zealand to the south-east. For around 40,000 years before Eu...

Every one acquainted with the manners and customs of the East must be aware that there is no situation of eminence more unstable, or more dangerous to its possessor, than that of a pacha. Nothing, perhaps, affords us more convincing proof of the risk which men will incur, to obtain a temporary authority over their fellow-creatures, than the avidity with which this office is accepted from the sultan who, within the memory of the new occupant, has consigned scores of his predecessors to the ...

Early Europeans may have believed the world was flat, but by the Middle Ages there was widespread acceptance that it was, in fact, a globe. What remained a mystery, however, was what lay on the "other side". The belief in a vast southern continent went back centuries, and many expeditions set out to find it, sometimes in search of wealth, sometimes to convert its inhabitants to Christianity. This is the story of the voyages into this great unknown, by the Chinese and early Americans, the D...