Pacific voyages : the story of sail in the great ocean / Gordon Miller.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Miller, Gordon, 1932- author.

Contributor:

Dorothy Mann Yeakel & Paul Herbert Yeakel Memorial Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Pacific Ocean--Discovery and exploration.

Pacific Ocean.

Explorers--History.

Explorers.

Sailing ships--History.

Sailing ships.

Discoveries in geography.

Genre:

History

Physical Description:

xi, 252 pages : illustrations (chiefly color), color maps ; 27 x 30 cm

Place of Publication:

Madeira Park, BC : Douglas and McIntyre, [2023]

Summary:

"In Western myths and imagination, the Pacific is the home of soft, warm, gentle trade winds, idyllic island lagoons and waving palms--the exotic earthly paradise of escapists, adventurers and romantics. Until James Cook showed otherwise, eighteenth-century Europeans also believed this ocean to contain a great southern continent of untold riches and beauty. The islands of the South Pacific can indeed be enchanting, their charm often exceeding expectations, but as European mariners realized when they first arrived here in the sixteenth century, the Pacific Ocean is also a region of ferocious tropical cyclones, treacherous, reef-littered atolls, wearying doldrums and mind-numbing distances. This book is maritime artist and historian Gordon Miller's tribute to the humble little ships that first ventured across the great Pacific, and the brave sailors that manned them. It is a brief, selective and condensed story of the charting, exploitation and occupation of the Pacific Ocean, mostly in small, wooden ships, with only wind and human muscle for power. These maritime pioneers united North and South America, Australia, New Zealand, the entire Pacific Ocean, all the coasts that surround it, and all the islands within. Even confined to the last four centuries of oceangoing sail, this is a large and complex story--a story brought to life by Miller's carefully researched text and masterfully rendered maritime paintings."-- Provided by publisher.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Dorothy Mann Yeakel & Paul Herbert Yeakel Memorial Fund.

Other Format:

Online version: Miller, Gordon, 1932- Pacific voyages.

ISBN:

9781771623476

1771623470

OCLC:

1351386624

Publisher Number:

99996447784