The Conquest of the Ocean: The Illustrated History of Seafaring

Lavery (All Hands) presents a choppy survey of humanity’s history on the seas in this far-ranging volume. The prolific British maritime historian begins about 30,000 years ago with Polynesian seafarers’ colonization of Pacific islands and continues through to address harrowing accounts of modern-day piracy. Ports of call between these distant coasts include the treasure voyages of Ming official Zheng He, the discovery of the New World, the invention of the Fresnel lens, the Battle of Midway, and many others. Throughout the book, two-page insets highlight various technological milestones, such as the advent of the sextant and snapshots of the evolution of ships. Each receives a brief treatment and is sumptuously supplemented with maps and images. Yet like our understanding of the deep oceans themselves, Lavery’s account is woefully incomplete—a six-page section on whaling, for example, relies only on Captain Scoresby’s accounts and fails to even mention Moby Dick or devote a single sentence to the importance of fishing over the course of human history. Similarly, the 17th-century wreck of the Batavia is treated to a whole chapter, while the fate of the Titanic is summed up in a captioned illustration and one line. This is an adequate introduction to the topic for nautical neophytes, but salty sailors should slake their thirst elsewhere. Color maps, photos, and illus. throughout. (Sept.)