Anyone have any recommendations for good books on the early days of Atlantic exploration?
I’ve read Shackleton’s book and other exploration/adventure stories and enjoyed them, right now reading Simon Winchester’s Atlantic (basically a biography of the Atlantic Ocean, from geologic formation to present day). I have been enjoying it, but really like the section detailing the early Norse explorations and the European explorations west towards America and south along the African coast.
Would be interested both a general history of the period or a specific story of a single person or voyage.
I know it’s not exactly within the parameters of your subject, but I really enjoy Tony Horwitz’s A Voyage Long and Strange. It looks at America’s discovery back to the first Europeans and Vikings with a slightly humorous prose.
Well, since I named one of my horses “Shackleton” (he is ruggedly handsome and while sometimes unorthodox in his jumping style, he always gets the job done) I suppose I should chime in. Have you read “Shackleton’s Forgotten Men”? It’s about the ship/men that landed on the other side of the Antarctic to lay out supply depots for the second half of Shackleton’s trek (Shackleton was planning to traverse the entire Antarctic continent, not just an out-and-back to the South pole.) So these men encounter harsh conditions, are starving to death, but refuse to eat the supplies that they have that are for Shackleton because they don’t know he abandoned his trek. They keep laying these depots, while suffering (basically for nothing.) Unfortunately, the captain wasn’t quite of the same caliber as Shackleton, so they didn’t all get out alive.
Not sure if it fits your subject exactly but I enjoyed Longitude by Dava Sobel. It’s about John Harrison and the problem of how to determine longitude while at sea.