Pioneers of the Seven Seas

Routledge & Kegan Paul, London 1956, 1st edition, good condition, dustwrapper okay but repaired

Villiers tells the story of the sailing pioneers, with colourful figures from history, the Chinese, the Polynesians, Indians, Egyptians, Arabs and Phoenicians, to the Vikings and Henry the Navigator, from whom European sea routes sprang. He highlights the improvements in design, the schooners, clippers, Maury the hydrographerm Hilgendorf and the great Potosi and Preussen, and of the first steamer, the first trans-Atlantic liner, the first tanker, the gas-turbined Auris, the giant liners and the welded ships of war. The accounds of the captains and their ships. and the voyages they sailed on remain of great interest...