The History Press Ltd
Master and Cartographer - A Life of Captain Greenvile Collins, the Man who Charted Britain and Helped Change the Course of History
Master and Cartographer - A Life of Captain Greenvile Collins, the Man who Charted Britain and Helped Change the Course of History
SKU:HIS1126
A Life of Captain Greenvile Collins, the Man who Charted Britain and Helped Change the Course of History
‘Fascinating and elegantly written, Master & Cartographer introduces a largely forgotten naval hero of Stuart England’ – N.A.M. Rodger, author of The Safeguard of the Sea, The Command of the Ocean and The Price of Victory
This is a book about maps and map-making, about power and class, and about war, seamanship and navigation. It is a study of wealth, patronage and money, in an England riven by religious disorder and toxic politics.
Greenvile Collins (1643–94) was a naval warrant officer who caught the attention of a King. His seagoing career took him from Patagonia to the Arctic, into battles against Dutch men of war and Barbary corsairs, and to the slave markets and Silk Road ports of the Mediterranean. A scientific navigator, his professional drive drew him to Shetland, the Scilly Isles and all points in between, as he undertook the most ambitious hydrographic survey of the British coastline yet attempted.
Then, even as he laboured to complete his monumental sea atlas, he was summoned yet again to the service of the Crown. The Glorious Revolution was a campaign of crisis for a deeply conflicted Royal Navy, and a crucial test of loyalty for Greenvile Collins and his fellow officers.
‘Greenvile Collins emerges as a sympathetic hero, who served three kings while compiling invaluable charts and navigational data for his fellow sailors. Not since Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin novels have I enjoyed such rollicking armchair adventures at sea’ – Dava Sobel, author of Longitude
Alan Harper is a writer, journalist and editor who specialises in maritime, aviation and music matters. Born in Glasgow and brought up in Nairobi, he graduated from Exeter University in 1981.
Time spent in Chicago in his early 20s resulted, eventually, in the award-winning blues memoir Waiting For Buddy Guy, described by Elijah Wald as “the clearest-eyed view of the Chicago scene I’ve ever read”, and by Mojo as “beautifully wrought, populated with vivid and memorable characters… an evocative portrait of a bygone era flecked with insight, wit and warmth".
He learned to sail in Hong Kong, gaining his small-craft Master’s ticket in 1978, and passed the RYA/MCA Yachtmaster Offshore exam in 1993. In nearly 20 years at the UK’s biggest magazine publisher he won awards for writing and editing on Motor Boat & Yachting and Jets. As a freelance since 2002, he has edited magazines and written for The Guardian, Vanity Fair and the Financial Times, as well as numerous boating and aviation titles.
In many seasons aboard a succession of MBY’s boats, all called Prospector, he cruised extensively in UK and European waters from Skye to Gdansk. It was while weatherbound in Gosport that he first encountered a Greenvile Collins chart, in an antiques shop, and this resulted, eventually, in Master & Cartographer.
He moved from London to south Devon in 2005 with his wife and two sons. For more info go to alanharper co uk
Share
