Richard Spilman Review: Tupaia: Captain Cook’s Polynesian Navigator by Joan Druett

Originally published on the The Old Salt Blog

Joan Druett’s new book, Tupaia – Captain Cook’s Polynesian Navigator, fills an important blank space in the history, as well as the legend, of Captain Cook. On his first voyage to the Pacific in HMS Endeavour, during a stop in Tahiti, Cook took aboard a Polynesian high priest named Tupaia. Tupaia was also a skilled navigator and would serve as translator and diplomat for Cook when he encountered the warlike Maoris of New Zealand.

While Tupaia played a critical role in the success of Cook’s first voyage, he died of complications from scurvy in Batavia and was never given the credit he was due by either Captain Cook or Josephs Banks in their accounts of the expedition. Finally Tupaia’s story is being told, in this, the first full biography of the remarkable navigator, linguist, artist and priest. It is a fascinating tale, well told.

Read More Richard Spilman Review: Tupaia: Captain Cook’s Polynesian Navigator by Joan Druett.

Astrodene Review: Iron Men by M. Kei

 

 

 

Once again the story takes up where the previous one left of, this time with Lieutenant Peter Thornton temporarily in command of HMS Ajax at Gibraltar. It is difficult to summarise these books as there are so many twists and turns in the plot but in essence after some fighting with the Spanish Thornton is soon ordered back to England where he is joined by ships of the Sallee Navy. This is where the authors decision to create a fictional history comes into it’s own with scenes of the colourful North African corsairs and their lateen rigged vessels, under the command of Isam Rais al-Tangueli, at Portsmouth.

Read More Astrodene Review: Iron Men by M. Kei.

First Fleet (K)

Author M. Howard Morgan has a new novel which is now available, First Fleet. It is currently only available as a Kindle ebook but will also be released as a paperback later in the year.

Love, murder, betrayal, and adventure with transportation of convicts in 1787 and the founding of the penal colony that became Australia.

With the American colonies closed to Britain, the gaols overflowed, the criminal under-class posed a threat to the property classes. A solution was required. The answer lay in the continent on the far side of the world – Terra Australis Incognita.

Read More First Fleet (K).

BBC News – iPhone alarms hit by New Year glitch

A glitch on Apple’s iPhone has stopped its built-in alarm clock going off, leaving many people oversleeping on the first two days of the New Year.

Angry bloggers and tweeters complained that they had been late for work, and were risking missing planes and trains.

Apple has acknowledged the problem and says it will be fixed by 3 January.

via BBC News – iPhone alarms hit by New Year glitch.

M. Kei Review: Peter Simple by Frederick Marryat

Peter Simple is an early novel by Captain Frederick Marryat, he who actually served during the Napoleonic Wars and under the redoubtable Lord Cochrane to boot. As such, Marryat’s sea novels are replete with details of life as actually experienced by the men and officers of the time. However, Marryat’s a humorist, and his goal is to tell an entertaining tale, and with Peter Simple he succeeds admirably. Fans of Patrick O’Brian will discover source material in Marryat later adapted by POB in his Aubrey/Maturin novels.

Read More M. Kei Review: Peter Simple by Frederick Marryat.