The Nautical Almanac
The free online Nautical Almanac
The world's most complete source of free celestial navigation information

Books about sailing or navigation


The South Pole 
by- Roald Amundsen
Amundsen wrote the account of his expedition of five Norwegians first to reach The South Pole on December 14, 1911.  Amundsen was truly the greatest explorer of the 20th century.



SOUTH!  THE STORY OF SHACKLETON’S LAST EXPEDITION 1914–1917
 
by Sir Ernest Shackleton
THE Boss!  "Roll up your sleeping-bags, boys: the Boss may be coming today".


Endurance; an epic of polar adventure  
by Frank Worsley

Worsley is THE man that saved the Shackleton expedition. Had it not been for his ability to navigate the ferocious South Atlantic to South Georgia island none of the Shackleton expedition would have survived.


The American Ephemeris And Nautical Almanac For The Year 1916

USNO version of The Nautical Almanac useful in comparing to Captain Frank Worsley's of the Shackleton Expedition.  It is assumed the Worsley was using The Nautical Almanac published by the British Hydrographic Office.

Download by "right click" is recommended as the file is 55 meg in size.


Sailing Alone Around the World
by Joshua Slocum
Slocum was the first solo-circumnavigator finishing his voyage in 1898.


The eventful history of the mutiny and piratical seizure of H.M.S. Bounty : its cause and consequences
by Sir John Barrow 1764-1848


Two Years Before The Mast
by Richard Henry Dana 1815-1882
An excellent book describing in detail the life of American  merchant sailors in the 1800's



Greenwich Time and the discovery of the Longitude

by Derek Howse

A History of Nautical Astronomy


by Charles H. Cotter

A thorough and easy to read history of position finding and how it developed over the centuries.


Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time
by Dava Sobel

This is the story of John Harrison (1693– 24 March 1776)- the inventor of the marine chronometer.  Without his invention of the chronometer none of us would really know where we are.

Sextant: A Young Man's Daring Sea Voyage and the Men Who Mapped the World's Oceans
By David Barrie


A New and Accurate Method of Finding a Ship's Position at Sea, by Projection on Mercator's Chart
By Capt. Thomas H. SumnerJuly 1843, Thomas Groom & Company of Boston

We are all in indebted to Captain Sumner for his excellent work.





Here's to the memory of those great men!
Fair winds!