Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Compass: A Story of Exploration and Innovation (Revised)

Compass: A Story of Exploration and Innovation (Revised)

Gurney, Alan

Paperback

Technology & EngineeringBoatingGeneral World History

ISBN10: 0393327132
ISBN13: 9780393327137
Publisher: W W Norton & Co
Published: Aug 1 2005
Pages: 322
Weight: 0.62
Height: 0.38 Width: 5.44 Depth: 8.06
Language: English

Compass chronicles the misadventures of those who attempted to perfect the magnetic compass--so precious to sixteenth-century seamen that, by law, any man found tampering with it had his hand pinned to the mast with a dagger. From the time man first took to the seas until only one thousand years ago, sight and winds were the sailor's only navigational aids. It was not until the development of the compass that maps and charts could be used with any accuracy--even so, it would be hundreds of years and thousands of shipwrecks before the marvelous instrument was perfected. And its history up to modern times is filled with the stories of disasters that befell sailors who misused it. In this page-turning history of man's search for reliable navigation of treacherous sea routes around the globe, Alan Gurney brings to life the instrument Victor Hugo called the soul of the ship.

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