Are you an armchair adventurer or historian? Come delve into tales of early world exploration in Brooke-Hitching’s The Golden Atlas. Beginning in the Mediterranean in 2250 BC and ending with World War I and the rise of scientific cartography, readers are transported to the far corners of the world. Each story is illustrated with rarely seen maps, drawings and photographs.
Here is a sampling of a few of the tales…
An early unsubstantiated story told by Herodotus is about Necho II, ruler of Egypt in the 26th Dynasty. Somewhere between 610-594 BC, he hired a group of expert Phoenician sailors to travel south of the Red Sea. With Africa on their right, they sailed down along the east coast, rounded the Cape of Good Hope and sailed north, eventually finding the Mediterranean and Egypt. Is this tale true? The Phoenicians were renown sailors of the ancient world, but were also known for their tall tales. Pliny apparently believed Herodotus while Ptolemy whose mapping would hold sway for years, didn’t. (See post “150” November 2019). More accurate European maps had to wait until Portuguese navigator Bartolomeu Dias sailed around the Cape of Good Hope in 1488.
The mythical island of Thule makes it’s 1st appearance in About the Ocean by Pytheas in 325 BC. He sailed north from the Bay of Biscay and explored the coasts of Europe and Great Britain plus the Shetland and Orkney islands. It is thought that he gave either Iceland or possibly Norway, the name of Thule. On returning home, Pytheas brought tales of the Midnight Sun, polar ice and the northern tribes. However, Roman cartographer Strabo didn’t consider him reliable. It’s difficult being the first explorer for a new place. The Roman general Agricola, who arrived in Scotland by AD 84, sent out his own team of explorers who circumnavigated the Orkney Islands and found “Thule” (known today as the Shetland Islands). Thule continued to pop up on European maps throughout the years, generally referring to someplace distant, cold and frequently an island.
Setting sail in 1766, with the approval of King Louis XV, Louis-Antoine de Bougainville led the 1st French circumnavigation of the world. For the honor of France and for scientific purposes, de Bougainville took some very notable men: Count Jean-Francois de Galaup de La Perouse, Astronomer Pierre-Antoine Veron, Cartographer Charles Routier de Romainville, Historian Louis-Antoine Starot de Saint-Germain and Botanist Philibert Commercon with his personal valet. Brooke-Hitchings accompanies this tale with Carte Genrale de la Terre ou Mappe Monde {1785} by Jean Baptisste Louis Clouet. The map shows routes taken by de Bougainville, Magellan and Cook. The journey went well even though it took 52 days to get by the Strait of Magellan. Once in the Pacific, they headed north and west to Tahiti, Samoa, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands and past New Guinea. Close by, but undiscovered, was Australia. After landing at Mauritius and the Cape of Good Hope, de Bougainville arrived back at Saint-Malo as the 1st Frenchman to successfully sail around the world. And one more thing: Commercon named the Bougainvillea flower for him.
Fittingly, the last story in the Golden Atlas is the story of Ernest Shackleton’s expedition in 1914-1917. It was planned to be a trans-Antarctic route from the Wendell Sea over the South Pole to the Ross Sea. However, the weather and the ice did not cooperate. Brooke-Hitchings has included chilling pictures of the Endurance frozen in ice, men setting sail in a open boat awash with cold water and hand drawn maps of the journey to survive. Against the odds, the 27 men of the Wendell Sea crew returned home. Do not consider reading this tale in the middle of a blizzard!
Written for the imaginative armchair adventurer, this book is a must. Go find a copy.
Related resources at the Ohio State University Libraries:
Shackleton’s boat journey
South : Shackleton’s Endurance expedition
The life of Isabella Bird : hon. member of the Oriental Society of Pekin F.R.G.S., F.R.S.G.S
Among the Tibetans, by Isabella Bird Bishop … With illustrations by Edward Whymper
The Pacific journal of Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, 1767-1768
A voyage round the world. Performed by order of His Most Christian Majesty, in the years 1766, 1767, 1768, and 1769