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Record Nr. |
UNINA9910809578603321 |
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Autore |
Huth John Edward |
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Titolo |
The lost art of finding our way / / John Edward Huth |
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Pubbl/distr/stampa |
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Cambridge, Mass., : Belknap Press, 2013 |
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ISBN |
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Edizione |
[1st ed.] |
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Descrizione fisica |
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1 online resource (544 p.) |
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Disciplina |
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Soggetti |
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Navigation - History |
Naval art and science - History |
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Lingua di pubblicazione |
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Formato |
Materiale a stampa |
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Livello bibliografico |
Monografia |
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Note generali |
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Description based upon print version of record. |
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Nota di bibliografia |
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Includes bibliographical references and index. |
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Nota di contenuto |
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Front matter -- Contents -- 1. Before the Bubble -- 2. Maps in the Mind -- 3. On Being Lost -- 4. Dead Reckoning -- 5. Urban Myths of Navigation -- 6. Maps and Compasses -- 7. Stars -- 8. The Sun and the Moon -- 9. Where Heaven Meets Earth -- 10. Latitude and Longitude -- 11. Red Sky at Night -- 12. Reading the Waves -- 13. Soundings and Tides -- 14. Currents and Gyres -- 15. Speed and Stability of Hulls -- 16. Against the Wind -- 17. Fellow Wanderers -- 18. Baintabu's Story -- Appendix 1: Major Star Coordinates and Mapping onto Earth -- Appendix 2: Some Significant Events in Latitude and Longitude -- Appendix 3: Toledo Tables -- Appendix 4: Sailing Capabilities in Baintabu's Story -- Glossary -- Notes -- Acknowledgments -- Index |
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Sommario/riassunto |
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Long before GPS, Google Earth, and global transit, humans traveled vast distances using only environmental clues and simple instruments. John Huth asks what is lost when modern technology substitutes for our innate capacity to find our way. Encyclopedic in breadth, weaving together astronomy, meteorology, oceanography, and ethnography, The Lost Art of Finding Our Way puts us in the shoes, ships, and sleds of early navigators for whom paying close attention to the environment around them was, quite literally, a matter of life and death. Haunted by the fate of two young kayakers lost in a fogbank off Nantucket, Huth shows us how to navigate using natural phenomena-the way the Vikings used the sunstone to detect polarization of sunlight, and Arab |
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traders learned to sail into the wind, and Pacific Islanders used underwater lightning and "read" waves to guide their explorations. Huth reminds us that we are all navigators capable of learning techniques ranging from the simplest to the most sophisticated skills of direction-finding. Even today, careful observation of the sun and moon, tides and ocean currents, weather and atmospheric effects can be all we need to find our way. Lavishly illustrated with nearly 200 specially prepared drawings, Huth's compelling account of the cultures of navigation will engross readers in a narrative that is part scientific treatise, part personal travelogue, and part vivid re-creation of navigational history. Seeing through the eyes of past voyagers, we bring our own world into sharper view. |
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