Arctic Odyssey: Dove III Masters the Northwest Passage Book

As I have a strong interest in ships, the sea, and the compass in particular, I began reading this book more or less just on a lark'hoping to come away from it with at least a slightly better understanding of the tool's use at sea and how it was invented and improved over time'but I was sadly expecting to end up wading through a lot of dry, complicated facts that I probably wouldn't understand. What I got instead was an unexpected exciting jaunt through maritime history'not a lecture, but a story.

Compass is a series of true historical tales told through the lives of the visionaries and explorers who developed this ingenious navigational tool into what it is today. It's a story of hardship and victory, adventure and study, failed experiments and successful invention, with many players coming and going as the plot goes on through the centuries, but always with the compass situated in the very center of the events'the inanimate protagonist in a real-life drama. And all of it is told in terms an amateur like me could immediately grasp and understand with very little trouble at all.

As someone who lives in a completely landlocked location and has no concrete knowledge of seafaring life, or even life near the coast, I don't imagine I could manage to navigate a course across the ocean myself anytime soon after reading this book. I'd be an idiot to try. But I do have a firmer grasp of what an undertaking, accomplishment, and precious commodity this "soul of the ship" has been and still continues to be for those whose lives and livelihoods depend on it for direction as they sail the world's oceans.