A Mariner's Tale [With Model Ship, Telescope, Instruction Sheets and Compass]

by Philip Steele

Beautiful two-page spreads introduce young readers to the history of the worldAa's mariners and their most memorable sea voyages. Here are the ships, the men, the trade routes they established, and their voyages of discovery. A few of the bookAa's illustrated entries include—
Phoenician sea traders (1300 B.C. to 140 B.C.) who plied the Mediterranean and ultimately extended their voyages to Britain in the west, and India in the east The Vikings of Scandinavia (1st Millennium A.D.), who colonized Greenland and Iceland, explored the North American coastline, and raided and traded along the European coast from France to Constantinople ChinaAa's Ming Dynasty treasure trading ships (4th Century B.C. to circa 1190 A.D.), which were first to use the compass, a shipAa's rudder, and multiple masts with fore and aft rigging The 15th- and 16th-century European voyages of global exploration by Vasco da Gama, Christopher Columbus, Ferdinand Magellan, Francis Drake, and others The voyages of British Naval Captain James Cook (1760s and 1770s) and his exploration of the south seas, the East Indies, Australia, and Easter Island
The handsomely illustrated spreads have miniature maps, lift-flaps, and attached miniature booklets presenting added facts about voyagers and exploration. A slide-out drawer built into the bookAa's sturdy back cover contains a working model shipAa's compass, a pair of lenses to construct a small telescope, a cardboard model of Captain CookAa's sailing ship Endeavor to assemble, and a miniature rope for practicing sailorsAa' knots. The bookAa's back-cover endpaper displays an antique map of the Western Hemisphere, and when the slide-out drawer is opened, a tab that pictures a sailing ship glides across the mapAa's surface. Brilliant color illustrations on every page.