Books in the Cambridge Library Collection - Maritime Exploration series

Anna, Lady Brassey (1839-1887) was an English travel writer best known for her accounts of ocean journeys undertaken with her family. This volume, published posthumously in 1889, contains Brassey's account of her family's visit to India, Borneo and Australia, describing exotic locations and domestic life on board.

HMS Chanticleer sailed to the South Atlantic under the experienced surveyor Captain Henry Foster to study longitude and the figure of the earth. In Volume 1 of his account of the voyage, published in 1834, the ship's surgeon describes his impressions of South America (including South Shetland) and South Africa.

Published in 1773, this three-volume work proved a bestseller in its day. Taken from journals and including Cook's first voyage to the southern hemisphere, these are the accounts of leading British navigators. Later taken aboard the Beagle with Darwin, this work still speaks to scholars and students of nautical exploration.

Published in 1773, this three-volume work proved a bestseller in its day. Taken from journals and including Cook's first voyage to the southern hemisphere, these are the accounts of leading British navigators. Later taken aboard the Beagle with Darwin, this work still speaks to scholars and students of nautical exploration.

Published in 1773, this three-volume work proved a bestseller in its day. Taken from journals and including Cook's first voyage to the southern hemisphere, these are the accounts of leading British navigators. Later taken aboard the Beagle with Darwin, this work still speaks to scholars and students of nautical exploration.

First published in 1768, this dramatic account by naval officer John Byron (1723-86) recounts the five harrowing years it took to get home after the wreck and mutiny of HMS Wager in 1741. Aboard the Beagle on Darwin's voyage, the book also influenced Don Juan by the author's grandson.

On 28 April 1789, on board HMS Bounty, Fletcher Christian led what became the most infamous mutiny in seafaring history. Originally published in 1790 and 1792, the two works reissued here together give the full story of the voyage, as told by William Bligh (1754-1817), the ship's commander.

This 1771 two-volume work, edited and translated into English by Johann Reinhold Forster (1729-98), contains important writings by Swedish natural historians who travelled to Asia in the 1750s as pupils and followers of Carl Linnaeus. These pieces remain of interest to historical geographers as well as naturalists.

Otto von Kotzebue (1787-1846) was a leading navigator of his age, circumnavigating the globe three times. His 1815 expedition set out to find a passage through the Arctic, investigate the coastlines of Kamchatka and Alaska, and explore the Pacific. Published in 1821, this three-volume translated account was in Darwin's library aboard the Beagle.

First published in 1851, this two-volume work was compiled from several hundred sources by English geographer and hydrographer Alexander Findlay (1812-75). Including detailed sailing instructions and descriptions of the coastlines and islands of the Pacific, this comprehensive nautical directory constituted an invaluable resource for nineteenth-century seafarers.

Henry Mathias Elmore was a ship commander who worked for the East India Company. He wrote this account of sailing in the East, published in 1802, to give specific sailing instructions, but it also provides a glimpse of the inner workings of the British colonial maritime world.

Published in 1788 by Andrew Kippis (1725-95), this was the first biography of Captain James Cook (1728-79), although several of Cook's colleagues had written memoirs of their service with him. Kippis draws on the official accounts of Cook's voyages and focuses on Cook's professional life and achievements.

James Colnett (1753-1806) was the captain of HMS Rattler during its voyage to the Antarctic in 1793. The expedition's findings were instrumental to the development of the whaling industry in the area. First published in 1798, this book is the Captain's account of this important voyage.

This is an English translation from 1772 of the famous Voyage Autour du Monde (1771) by Louis de Bougainville (1729-1811), French admiral and explorer. Describing de Bougainville's adventures on the voyage, it includes graphic descriptions of the discomforts and perils of sea voyages in the eighteenth century.

La Perouse (1741-88), the French explorer, led an expedition which was lost in the Pacific in 1788. These volumes, first published in English in 1799, and based on documents sent back by La Perouse from Australia before his disappearance, provide a fascinating account of the discoveries of the expedition.

James Stanier Clarke (c.1766-1834) was a chaplain and naval author. This volume, first published in 1803, contains Clarke's study of early navigational methods and naval history. Arranged chronologically according to civilisation or country, this volume describes the navigational methods and discoveries of early Mediterranean societies until 1498.

The geologist Joseph Beete Jukes (1811-1869) participated in a British surveying expedition to Australia and New Guinea from 1842 to 1846. This two-volume work, published in 1847, describes his observations and experiences. Volume 1 covers the Barrier Reef, the Torres Strait and the Sunda Islands.

James Burney (1750-1821) was an accomplished sailor best known for this monumental compilation of summaries of European voyages of discovery in the Pacific Ocean between 1492 and 1764, which were regarded as standard works for this subject during the nineteenth century. Volume 1 covers voyages between 1492 and 1574.

Matthew Flinders' travel diaries provide a faithful account of the 1801 naval expedition that led to the first complete map outlining the Australian continent. Structured around day-to-day geographical, botanical and astronomical observations, the first volume focuses on the discoveries made along the south coast of the continent.

A Voyage Round the World, in the Gorgon Man of War (1795) records Mary Ann Parker's voyage with her husband, Captain John Parker, to New South Wales. Written following the death of her husband, the memoir offers valuable insight into women's participation in eighteenth-century colonialism, both socially and economically.

First published in 1831, this is a three-volume reference text charting the history of exploration. Each volume is divided chronologically by historical era, covering the period from the Roman Empire to the nineteenth century. It is a key tool for anyone interested in the history of travel and exploration.

Full of sharp observations and well-chosen detail, this fast-moving account of Cook's first voyage was published anonymously in 1771, within months of the expedition's return. The author's intelligent interpretations of his exotic environments, and fascination with social anthropology and language, make his anonymity all the more intriguing.

Before Charles Darwin's famous voyage on the Beagle, the ship and its captain Robert Fitzroy (1805-65) had participated in a challenging survey of the South American coastline. Volume 1 of this three-volume work, published in 1839, describes that 1826-30 expedition, while Volumes 2 and 3 cover the second voyage.

This volume contains two works by John Bechervaise, born in 1791. The first is a narrative of 'thirty-six years of a seafaring life', published in 1839, describing his experiences in the merchant navy and Royal Navy. The second, from 1847, contains anecdotes drawn from the lives of Bechervaise's messmates.

After poor navigation led to his ship being wrecked in the Indian Ocean in 1786, James Horsburgh (1762-1836) devoted himself to the production of accurate charts of the eastern seas. This two-volume work, first published in 1809-11, became the standard reference for navigators for half a century.

The shipowner and politician William Schaw Lindsay (1816-77) combined a wealth of personal experience and practical knowledge with a meticulous approach to research. Originally published in four illustrated volumes in 1874-6, this is a full and authoritative history of the world of ships and maritime trade.

This seventeenth-century work (reissued in a 20-volume 1905-7 edition) follows Richard Hakluyt's Principal Navigations in recording voyages of exploration. Volume 1 considers ancient exploration, beginning with the navy of King Solomon, and moving to the classical period, before discussing the world's religions.

Antoine-Joseph Pernety (1716-96) joined Louis-Antoine de Bougainville's expedition in 1763-4 to claim the Falkland Islands for France. Published in 1770, this two-volume work presents his observations on the islands' natural history. Volume 1 describes the journey and the inspiration behind it, and details the fauna and flora discovered.

This four-volume collection showcasing discoveries by French explorers appeared in Paris in the mid-nineteenth century. The first two volumes contain Dumont d'Urville's lightly fictionalised, illustrated, popular account of his voyages, originally published in 1832. Volume 1 covers d'Urville's travels through Asia to French Polynesia, and reproduces the 1863 printing.

This two-volume work by Phillip Parker King (1791-1856) was published in 1827, and describes the Royal Navy's 1817-22 surveying expedition to chart the coastal regions of Australia. Derived from the author's journal, the book describes not only the voyages but also the towns and settlements of the region.