EBOOK
Master & Cartographer
A Life of Captain Greenvile Collins, the Man who Charted Britain and Helped Change the Course of His
Alan Harper(0)
About
Greenvile Collins (1643-94) is the most important Royal Navy officer you have never heard of. But he was well known to Samuel Pepys, and worked personally for Charles II, James II and William III as hydrographer, navigation instructor and royal yacht captain. The charts by themselves would ensure his place in history, but Collins also made history through his actions. As navigator of the King's flagship during the 'Glorious Revolution' he perpetrated an ingenious deception, granting the Dutch army crucial extra time to mount their invasion. This has never been written about, perhaps because historians tend not to be navigators, yet it's all there, in Collins' 1688 journal, hiding in plain sight. This new study both explores for the first time Collins' charts as navigation aids, as well as how he changed the course of history.
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Reviews
"'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 <i>Longitude</i>
"'A triumph. Far more than just the man who charted Britain, Greenvile Collins developed faster survey techniques, commanded ships, fought in battle, and ended his career as the leading hydrographer of the Navy. Alan Harper's major contribution places Collins in a critical series of events, linking charts and navigation with wars and the fast-paced transitions that occurred after 1688, adding a significant new dimension to the naval side of that tumultuous year'"
Andrew Lambert, Laughton Professor of Naval History, Kings College, London