Peter Lauridsen's Vitus Bering: the Discoverer of Bering Strait is a concise yet authoritative historical study of the Danish navigator whose Russian-sponsored expeditions transformed European knowledge of the North Pacific. Combining biography, maritime history, and documentary reconstruction, the book traces Bering's movement from obscure naval officer to leader of the Kamchatka expeditions, situating his achievement within the age of imperial science, cartography, and Arctic exploration...

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 "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...

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...

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 ...

Karl von Scherzer's 'Narrative of the Circumnavigation of the Globe by the Austrian Frigate Novara' is a meticulously detailed account of the voyage of the Novara, offering a fascinating glimpse into the exploration of the mid-19th century. Scherzer's narrative is marked by its vivid descriptions of the places visited, the people encountered, and the scientific discoveries made during the expedition. Written in a straightforward and informative style, the book provides readers with a compr...

This book, one of six composed by Dr. Westervelt, is an intriguing blend of Hawaiian legends and chronicled stories. The starting points of the Hawaiian public, the demi-god Maui's quest for interminability for humanity, the happening to Captain Cook, the conflicts of King Kamehameha, just as different parts of Hawaii's amazing history fill its pages. (Google)

In the second half of the eighteenth century, the Russian Empire-already the largest on earth-expanded its dominion onto the ocean. Through a series of government-sponsored voyages of discovery and the establishment of a private fur trade, Russians crossed and re-crossed the Bering Strait and the North Pacific Ocean, establishing colonies in Kamchatka and Alaska and exporting marine mammal furs to Europe and China. In the process they radically transformed the North Pacific, causing enviro...