TRACKS ON THE OCEAN

Subtitled 'A History of Trailblazing, Maps and Maritime Travel', the book was long-listed for the 2025 BSHS Hughes Prize. The first circumnavigation of the globe was painted by Renaissance artists as a blazing silver trail. When Captain Cook in the 18th century sailed deep into the Pacific, the tracks of his ships were printed on nautical charts as cobweb-thin black threads. With a cartological track, someone consulting a chart in Europe could hope to gain a grasp at a glance of the main outlines, literally, of something that had happened over days, months and years on the other side of the globe. They were incredibly powerful ways of storing knowledge. From their first appearance on Renaissance maps, linear tracks representing maritime voyages have shaped the way we see the world. But why do we depict journeys as lines, and what is their deeper meaning? Ferdinand Magellan's route to the Pacific embodied the promise of adventure and colonisation, while the scientific charts of the Royal Navy inspired others to plan conquests, navigate treacherous waters and establish settlements across the oceans. Caputo charts a hidden history taking us from ancient Greek itineraries to 21st century digital mapping, via the voyages of Drake and Cook, the decks of Napoleonic warships and the boiler rooms of ocean liners, and reveals how marks on maps have changed the course of modernity. 'Ingenious. Caputo picks out a fascinating path and leads readers along it with the confidence of a practised pilot' - Felipe Fernández-Armesto, author of 1492. 310 pages, plenty of line art, archive drawings plus 16 pages of colour images.