Alan Gurney (–2012)

I should've paid more attention to the subtitle of this book. Foolishly, I thought this would be a book about the development, and technical challenges therein, of the compass. But it's really an excuse to dive into all the various personalities and historical clutter surrounding the development of the compass.

I liked learning how the compass was initially created and how it led to the discovery of magnetic variation and aided the development of our understanding of electricity and show more earth-as-magnet. I don't really need to know that there were playing cards with pictures of dudes digging for loadstones on them. And I definitely don't need an entire chapter devoted to explaining the origins, character, and ambitions of some quack of a compass entrepreneur.

And then there are the terms that go undefined by the author...and the lack of maps depicting relevant ship courses...and the convoluted sentences that end abruptly like staircases terminating in walls...and the muddled transitions that seem to exist purely to transition instead of assert anything meaningful...and the mis- and overuse of all forms of "irony"....

I really, really wanted to learn about the development and relevance of the compass, and what information on that topic I was able to extract from the text proved very interesting. But I am not going to waste any more time wading through all the irrelevant digressions and chortling but-did-you-also-knows to get to it. There has to be another way. ::insert compass pun here:: show less

A dense history of early voyages to the high south latitudes to determine if there was land and, if so, inhabitants and resources to be exploited. After a chapter on ancient and medieval propositions about what might be found, and chapters covering maritime reckoning, scurvy, the Antarctic convergence and the wildlife of the southern ocean, the author proceeds with vivid histories of trips by Halley, Cook, Bellingshausen, Weddell, Biscoe, Kemp and Belleny. There are also colorful but sad show more descriptions of the early-19th century discovery of massive seal colonies and their subsequent devastation over only a few years.

Anyone interested in the Antarctic should enjoy this. It fills a gap usually overlooked in favor of the famous explorers of the early-20th century and provides an intriguing look at what greatness there was in those who sailed into the void and made those later explorations possible. Personally, this book has led me to want to read about Halley and Cook, especially. What courage and vision (and maybe a bit of insanity) these men had. show less

Probably the best history of the development of the compass available in the world today.

If James Cook was so convinced that compass variation could not be used to determine a ship's location how was Halley able to make maps of compass variation that were anything more than wild guesses?

This book seems like a response to the success of the book "Longitude" by Dava Sobel.

I suspect the author's other books are pretty good too.

It seems these days that every tool has its history book, and the compass is no exception, its story being taken up by Alan Gurney in Compass: A Story of Exploration and Innovation. This pairs well with books like Dava Sobel's Longitude (although Sobel's is a slightly better read), and Gurney has done a fairly good job of outlining the long history of the the humble compass. A decent armchair history, and recommended for all the mariners out there who are interested in how they get where show more they're going.

http://philobiblos.blogspot.com/2006/08/book-review-compass.html

[Update: I accidentally reread this book in 2013, thinking I hadn't read it before. I had absolutely no memory of having read it previously. Take that for what you will.] show less