PETER FREUCHEN'S BOOK OF THE SEVEN SEAS

by Peter Freuchen ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 25, 1957

Skipper Freuchen weighs anchor for the last time. He navigates a course in the wake of other great voyages --those of Magellan and red-headed Columbus and more recently, Dr. Heyerdahl of the Kon Tiki expedition. His cap is doffed to all the great adventurer-scientists of the past; to Joshua Slocum who logged an unsurpassed record for distances and places visited by a single mariner. Slocum sailed 6000 miles in an old bark resurrected after seven years of disuse at Fair Baven, near New Bedford, Mass. in 1895. Freuchen, the nomadic Northman, observes the winds, tides, currents with a navigator's savvy. He dredges for the fleet sunk at Lepanto which took the power of the Turks with it to the ocean's floor and notes that Spain's supremacy was buried at sea with the Armada. There are incidental pearls of information in every chapter --Cervantes lost a hand at Lepanto, and Captain Cook had scurvy tagged for what it was. The sailor home from the sea looks back to the morning of the world, when whales had legs and foraged in the harbours. Sighting ahead he speculates that an overcrowded world may someday subsist on the one-called life of the seven seas. A bouillabaisse of adventure, science, marine life and geography.

Pub Date: Nov. 25, 1957

ISBN: 1592281257

Page Count: -

Publisher: Messner

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1957

Categories: NONFICTION