Sextant: Book review

[AntarcticPilot]

"Sextant", by David Barrie (published by William Collins, 2014) is a fascinating voyage across the Atlantic, through the history of celestial position fixing, and touching on the exploits of famous explorers. It is the sort of book that is hard to put down once you've started! The "framing" story is that of a passage across the Atlantic in the yacht "Saecwen", captained by Colin McMullen, during which the author learns the elements of celestial navigation. Using this "frame" story, the author charts the development of methods of celestial navigation, using accounts of famous voyages to illustrate the development of techniques. The voyages of Mendana, Cook, Bligh, Bougainville, La Perouse, Vancouver, Slocum, Worsley and others are depicted, briefly but (where I know enough to judge) accurately. The basic theory of celestial navigation is outlined, clearly enough to make the book good preliminary reading for anyone interested in learning this skill. The only surprise that I had was Barrie's statement that the current (2012) chart of South Georgia shows part of the coast of Annenkov Island as being unsurveyed - surprising because I know it was mapped very well in 2005/6!

Altogether a good read, with good research and clear exposition of the basics of what is often seen as a complex and difficult topic.

 

[Sandy]

Thanks AntarcticPilot, the book was on order at the local library and I picked it up yesterday.

 

[Babylon]

Thanks so much for the heads-up.

I'm nearly finished the brilliant 'Empire of the Deep' by Ben Wilson (the first history of the navy I've read which carries an gripping and overarching narrative), and having been getting a little twitchy about finding my next armchair tome...

PS buy from Waterstones who pay their due UK tax - Amazon don't!

 

[Billjratt]

Got "sextant" as a birthday pressie last year and thoroughly enjoyed it, especially when you can open Cmap on the laptop and see what they're writing about.
I'm also reading the history of Scottish cartography, but it's slow going.

 

[prv]

Does it have many pictures?

Odd question I know, but I generally buy "current" books in Kindle format rather than dead-tree. However, I make an exception for things where the illustrations are frequent or important, as the Kindle doesn't show them particularly well.

If it's all, or nearly all, text then I'll buy it now, if it has lots of diagrams then I'll order the paperback for when it comes out.

Cheers,

Pete

 

[Jamesuk]

Sounds more interesting than other publications.

I'll
Look into it

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Does it have many pictures?

Odd question I know, but I generally buy "current" books in Kindle format rather than dead-tree. However, I make an exception for things where the illustrations are frequent or important, as the Kindle doesn't show them particularly well.

If it's all, or nearly all, text then I'll buy it now, if it has lots of diagrams then I'll order the paperback for when it comes out.

Cheers,

Pete

There are two "blocks" of colour and half-tone illustrations - these are not vital to the enjoyment of the book. However, there are several black and white charts and diagrams in the text, and the latter especially are vital. I think that the Kindle format would be OK.

 

[jbweston]

Thanks so much for the heads-up.

. . .

PS buy from Waterstones who pay their due UK tax - Amazon don't!

Surely Amazon pay their 'due UK tax'? I think you mean you don't like the way that they organize their affairs so that less UK tax is due. I've never seen it suggested that they don't pay what is due.

I'm a fan of Amazon because they made it so easy to buy books - great indexing and search facilties on their site, good prices and speedy delivery, instead of my having to travel into a city to find a bookshop only to find that half the books I'm looking for aren't in stock. Which wouldn't excuse them if they weren't paying their 'due UK tax', but as far as I know they do.

 

[roblpm]

Surely Amazon pay their 'due UK tax'? I think you mean you don't like the way that they organize their affairs so that less UK tax is due. I've never seen it suggested that they don't pay what is due.

I'm a fan of Amazon because they made it so easy to buy books - great indexing and search facilties on their site, good prices and speedy delivery, instead of my having to travel into a city to find a bookshop only to find that half the books I'm looking for aren't in stock. Which wouldn't excuse them if they weren't paying their 'due UK tax', but as far as I know they do.

This seems to be a tedious argument. No company is going to pay more tax than they have to. Blame the politicians who make terrible tax laws and sign us up to international trade agreements that mean we don't have control over the multinationals. Then blame all the people who vote for these politicians who make terrible tax laws and sign..............

 

[SAMYL]

Apologies for a bit of a thread drift but if you have an old sextant or are restoring one and you want to learn about it there is an excellant book "The Nautical Sextant" by W. J. Morris.

It covers the theory, development and history of sextants up to the present day and then the processes involved in their restoration.

 

[Babylon]

Surely Amazon pay their 'due UK tax'? I think you mean you don't like the way that they organize their affairs so that less UK tax is due. I've never seen it suggested that they don't pay what is due.

We all have a moral duty to minimise the tax we pay - and as a self employed small business owner based in the UK I do exactly that entirely within the law - but to ignore the fact that Amazon UK gain more in grants than the pittance they pay in tax relative to their colossal UK turnover, and to the detriment of other businesses and the economy as a whole, is short-sighted in the extreme (and small-minded if you don't believe in the efficacy of boycott and public pressure):

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/...K-grants-than-it-paid-in-corporation-tax.html

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/may/09/margaret-hodge-urges-boycott-amazon-uk-tax-starbucks

I'm a fan of Amazon because they made it so easy to buy books - great indexing and search facilties on their site, good prices and speedy delivery...

£14.88 delivered on Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sextant-Voy...e=UTF8&qid=1424170246&sr=1-1&keywords=sextant

£16.99 delivered on Waterstones: https://www.waterstones.com/book/sextant/david-barrie/9780007516568

That £2.11 saving on Amazon LARGELY reflects the tax they don't pay.

The Americans have been screwing us in the watsit for the last 70 years. Enjoy your purchase.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Surely Amazon pay their 'due UK tax'? I think you mean you don't like the way that they organize their affairs so that less UK tax is due. I've never seen it suggested that they don't pay what is due.

I'm a fan of Amazon because they made it so easy to buy books - great indexing and search facilties on their site, good prices and speedy delivery, instead of my having to travel into a city to find a bookshop only to find that half the books I'm looking for aren't in stock. Which wouldn't excuse them if they weren't paying their 'due UK tax', but as far as I know they do.

We all have a moral duty to minimise the tax we pay - and as a self employed small business owner based in the UK I do exactly that entirely within the law - but to ignore the fact that Amazon UK gain more in grants than the pittance they pay in tax relative to their colossal UK turnover, and to the detriment of other businesses and the economy as a whole, is short-sighted in the extreme (and small-minded if you don't believe in the efficacy of boycott and public pressure):

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/...K-grants-than-it-paid-in-corporation-tax.html

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/may/09/margaret-hodge-urges-boycott-amazon-uk-tax-starbucks



£14.88 delivered on Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sextant-Voy...e=UTF8&qid=1424170246&sr=1-1&keywords=sextant

£16.99 delivered on Waterstones: https://www.waterstones.com/book/sextant/david-barrie/9780007516568

That £2.11 saving on Amazon LARGELY reflects the tax they don't pay.

The Americans have been screwing us in the watsit for the last 70 years. Enjoy your purchase.

I'd like to suggest that this is not the place for a discussion of the rights and wrongs of booksellers' tax situation, which have nothing to do with yachting.

 

[jbweston]

I'd like to suggest that this is not the place for a discussion of the rights and wrongs of booksellers' tax situation, which have nothing to do with yachting.

Point taken. I shouldn't respond to red rags

 

[Babylon]

Point taken. I shouldn't respond to red rags

No it wasn't - you're now talking about livestock!