Why read Shipwrecks of the Roaring Forties?

Book cover of Shipwrecks of the Roaring Forties: Researching some of Australia's earliest shipwrecks

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Why read it?

1 author picked Shipwrecks of the Roaring Forties as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Richard de Grijs

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In early times, during the European colonisation of the East Indies (the Spice Islands), the various East India companies would closely follow the African shoreline on their way north and east from the Cape of Good Hope. This turned out to be slow going, and so when the Dutch discovered the ‘Brouwer route,’ following the roaring forties before turning north some distance before hitting the Australian coast, their passage could be shortened by at least a month. The main problem of those early navigators was to decide when to turn north before running into the Western Australian coast. Many ships,…

From Richard's list on The best books to make you think about perilous voyages halfway around the world.