Conquering The Ocean

This book provides an authoritative new narrative of the Roman conquest of Britain, from the two campaigns of Julius Caesar up until the construction of Hadrian's Wall. It highlights the motivations of Roman commanders and British resistance fighters during a key period of Britain's history.

This book provides an authoritative new narrative of the Roman conquest of Britain, from the two campaigns of Julius Caesar up until the construction of Hadrian's Wall. It highlights the motivations of Roman commanders and British resistance fighters during a key period of Britain's history.

A captivating tale spanning 5,000 years of the oceans' history, The Conquest of the Ocean tells the stories of the remarkable individuals who sailed seas, for trade, to conquer new lands, to explore the unknown. From the early Polynesians to the first circumnavigations by the Portuguese and the British, these are awe-inspiring tales of epic sea voyages involving great feats of seamanship, navigation, endurance, and ingenuity. Explore the lives and maritime adventures, many with first-person narratives of land seekers and globe charters such as Christopher Columbus, Captain James Cook, and Vitus Bering.

The story of an uncovered voyage as colorful and momentous as any on record for the Age of Discovery--and of the Black mariner whose stunning accomplishment has been until now lost to history It began with a secret mission, no expenses spared. Spain, plotting to break Portugal's monopoly trade with the fabled Orient, set sail from a hidden Mexican port to cross the Pacific--and then, critically, to attempt the never-before-accomplished return, the vuelta. Four ships set out from Navidad, each one carrying a dream team of navigators. The smallest ship, guided by seaman Lope Martín, a mulatto who had risen through the ranks to become one of the most qualified pilots of the era, soon pulled far ahead and became mysteriously lost from the fleet. It was the beginning of a voyage of epic scope, featuring mutiny, murderous encounters with Pacific islanders, astonishing physical hardships--and at last a triumphant return to the New World. But the pilot of the fleet's flagship, the Augustine friar mariner Andrés de Urdaneta, later caught up with Martín to achieve the vuelta as well. It was he who now basked in glory, while Lope Martín was secretly sentenced to be hanged by the Spanish crown as repayment for his services. Acclaimed historian Andrés Reséndez, through brilliant scholarship and riveting storytelling--including an astonishing outcome for the resilient Lope Martín--sets the record straight.

For humans the sea is, and always has been, an alien environment. Ever moving and ever changing in mood, it is a place without time, in contrast to the land which is fixed and scarred by human activity giving it a visible history. While the land is familiar, even reassuring, the sea is unknown and threatening. By taking to the sea humans put themselves at its mercy. It has often been perceived to be an alien power teasing and cajoling. The sea may give but it takes. Why, then, did humans become seafarers? Part of the answer is that we are conditioned by our genetics to be acquisitive animals: we like to acquire rare materials and we are eager for esoteric knowledge, and society rewards us well for both. Looking out to sea most will be curious as to what is out there - a mysterious island perhaps but what lies beyond? Our innate inquisitiveness drives us to explore. Barry Cunliffe looks at the development of seafaring on the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, two contrasting seas — the Mediterranean without a significant tide, enclosed and soon to become familiar, the Atlantic with its frightening tidal ranges, an ocean without end. We begin with the Middle Palaeolithic hunter gatherers in the eastern Mediterranean building simple vessels to make their remarkable crossing to Crete and we end in the early years of the sixteenth century with sailors from Spain, Portugal and England establishing the limits of the ocean from Labrador to Patagonia. The message is that the contest between humans and the sea has been a driving force, perhaps the driving force, in human history.

The riveting story of the exploration of the final frontier of our planet—the deep ocean—and history-making mission to reach the bottom of all five seas. Humankind has explored every continent on earth, climbed its tallest mountains, and gone into space. But the largest areas of our planet remain largely a mystery: the deep oceans. At over 36,000 feet deep, there areas closest to earth’s core have remained nearly impossible to reach—until now. Technological innovations, engineering breakthroughs and the derring-do of a team of explorers, led by explorer Victor Vescovo, brought together an audacious global quest to dive to the deepest points of all five oceans for the first time in history. The expedition pushed technology to the limits, mapped hidden landscapes, discover previously unknown life forms and began to piece together how life in the deep oceans effects our planet—but it was far from easy. Expedition Deep Ocean is the inside story of this exploration of one of the most unforgiving and mysterious places on our planet, including the site of the Titanic wreck and the little-understood Hadal Zone. Vescovo and his team would design the most advanced deep-diving submersible ever built, where the pressure on the sub is 8 tons per square inch—the equivalent of having 292 fueled and fully loaded 747s stacked on top of it. And then there were hurricane-laden ocean waters and the byzantine web of global oceanography politics. Expedition Deep Ocean reveals the marvelous and other-worldly life found in all five deep ocean trenches, including several new species that have posed as of yet unanswered questions about survival and migration from ocean to ocean. Then there are the newly discovered sea mounts that cause tsunamis when they are broken by shifting subduction plates and jammed back into the earth crust, something that can now be studied to predict future disasters. Filled with high drama, adventure and the thrill of discovery, Expedition Deep Ocean celebrates courage and ingenuity and reveals the majesty and meaning of the deep ocean.

This volume considers how Greco-Roman authorities manipulated water on the practical, technological, and political levels. Water was controlled and harnessed with legal oversight and civic infrastructure (e.g., aqueducts). Waterways were 'improved' and made accessible by harbors, canals, and lighthouses. The Mediterranean Sea and Outer Ocean (and numerous rivers) were mastered by navigation for warfare, exploration, settlement, maritime trade, and the exploitation of marine resources (such as fishing). These waterways were also a robust source of propaganda on coins, public monuments, and poetic encomia as governments vied to establish, maintain, or spread their identities and predominance. This first complete study of the ancient scientific and public engagement with water makes a major contribution to classics, geography, hydrology and the history of science alike. In the ancient Mediterranean Basin, water was a powerful tool of human endeavor, employed for industry, trade, hunting and fishing, and as an element in luxurious aesthetic installations (public and private fountains). The relationship was complex and pervasive, touching on every aspect of human life, from mundane acts of collecting water for the household, to private and public issues of comfort and health (latrines, sewers, baths), to the identity of the state writ large.