Category : Reading

Sea novels, recreational or technical marine books…

Reading : "The Voyage to Polynesia" by Jean-Jo Scemla

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I had to embark in a few days for a convoying from Mediterranean to Polynesia. Unfortunately, The postponement of the departure to the end of the month and the professional constraints of returning imperatively at the beginning of May have just forced me to give up this trip. Bitter disappointment…

If you can't go there, It is always possible to experience it on paper. Following the "Voyage of Magellan" that I mentioned last December, I suggest a book that I discovered some ten years ago. A book to make you spend the winter by the fire, make you want to discover these islands scattered in the middle of the largest ocean on our planet, through their history told by the greatest travellers of past centuries. Read more …

About Marine Charting

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Christmas is coming and, whether the celebration is religious or pagan, so traditional gifts.

You've no doubt guessed my passion for marine charting, but before electronic charts, I hold a special attachment to paper charts. I started sailing with SHOM charts in black and white, accompanied by pretty calligraphy engravings representing remarkable capes, alignments. Then appeared the colored charts, flat, difficult to store in a sailboat of 8 meters high. I bought charts from the British Admiralty, even more colourful, impossible formats, with complicated folding and cutting in the form of cartridges. Finally I discovered the West Indies charts Imray, of a reduced format, laminated and folded in protective plastic envelopes, a revolution on chart tables. Then SHOM also produces folded charts, "P" for Piacenza, that I sold for several years.

But this generally only represents the 35 Later years of marine charting.

I was therefore particularly fascinated by the two books that follow, maybe you already know because not recent, but which are really worth taking advantage of this festive period to be offered them, if you did not yet got. Read more …

Reading : "D'Entrecasteaux in search of La Perouse" by Jean-Pierre Ledru

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Jean-François de Galaup de La Pérouse

Jean-François de Galaup de La Pérouse

Antoine de Bruni d'Entrecastaux

Antoine de Bruni d'Entrecasteaux

We know well, today, The fate of the expedition of the captain of the ship Jean-François de La Pérouse, lost with all hands in the Solomon Islands in 1788. What we know much less well, on the other hand, This is the story of the Admiral Antoine de Bruni d'Entrecasteaux gone for his search in 1791 at the request of Louis XVI, and whose fate was scarcely more enviable.

It is about this unknown expedition Jean-Pierre Ledru wrote, in the pictorial language of the sailors of the time, Through the eyes of a Norman "pilotin" embarked for better or for worse (¹). Read more …

Reading : "The castaways on Tromelin Island" by Irene Frain

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At the end of summer, I let the sea novel thriller to tell you about a novel, Published in 2009 published by Michel LAFON, Based on recently updated historical facts (*).

This book recounts the tragic journey of the French ship "L'Utile", a 800 barrels carrying a clandestine cargo of Malagasy slaves bound for the Ile de France, today Mauritius. The boat ran aground in 1761 on a tiny block of coral lost in the middle of the Indian Ocean, Devastated by storms : the island of Tromelin. Some 160 Slaves abandoned on this desert island by the white crew, 8 survivors were only discovered, 15 years after the shipwreck, by the corvette "La Dauphine" commanded by Ensign De Tromelin (whose name was given to the island). Read more …

Reading : "The Swordfish Reef" by Arthur W. Upfield

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Historical

Published in 1939, " The Mystery of Swordfish Reef ” was not published in France until the year 2000 by Editions 10/18, translated from the English by Michèle Valencia.

Arthur Upfield, born in England in 1888, was sent at the age of nineteen years by his parents in Australia. He would spend his whole life there, except the period of the 14-18. war. He will discover the wildlife outback Australian outback, will cross for years throughout the continent, living off odd jobs and makeshift jobs. He will meet in 1927 a mixed aboriginal, Queensland Police "tracker", who will inspire the character of Detective Napoleon Bonaparte, and reveal with him a great talent for writing novels. He will publish its first thriller in 1928, and would not cease until his death in 1964, at the rate of nearly one novel per year. He is now recognized as the father of the "ethnological thriller" (*).

With 30 detective novels written by Arthur Upfield, a single has the action at sea, far from the outback and aborigines : it is " The Swordfish Reef ”. Read more …

A new "Reading" section

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This blog, All in all, quite technical, seems to me to be cruelly lacking in poetry ! So I decided to bring it to the table., from time to time, A little distraction by sharing with you my favorite "maritime" reads. This may be the source for some of you ideas to spend the long sailing days – that many landowners imagine so boring – and for others long winter evenings spent on shore awaiting the come-back of spring time.

I have no ambition to pose as a literary critic. Simply to introduce those who do not already know them to the few books, Novels or techniques, which I particularly like.

Back, I'm interested in any literary discovery, more or less maritime, of which I would be ignorant, there must be a bunch of them !

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Titles in the Reading section
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