Atlantic (57 page)

Whaling

American, 126–27

early commercial, 285–90

Faroe Islands and, 30
f

Russian and Japanese harvest totals, 288n

in South Atlantic Ocean, 383–84

White Empresses (ships), 1, 3
f

Whitman, Walt, 195

Wilberforce, William, 231
f

Williams, Ralph Vaughn, 195

Willshire, Ohio, 239n

Willshire, William, 239

Wilson, J. Tuzo, 442n

Wilson Cycle, 442n

Windjammers, 314–16

Winds, 121, 419, 424, 438–40

Windsor Castle
(ship), 186–87

Wireless communication, 250, 311–14

Witten, Laurence, 76

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, 126n, 140, 430

World War I, 251–56

World War II, 257–66, 281n, 449–52

World Wildlife Fund, 361

Wreck of the Minotaur, The
(painting), 197
f

Wrecks.
See
Shipwrecks

Wright, Isaac, 295–99

Wright, Orville and Wilbur, 335

Yale University, 76–79

Yankee clippers, 314–16

Zionism, 270–71

Zoological oceanography, 120–21, 136–40

Acknowledgments

It goes almost without saying that researching a book that took me to places as distant and varied as Morocco, Brazil, Argentina, Newfoundland, Monte Carlo, Namibia, and Norway, as well as to such islands as St. Helena, Greenland, Tristan da Cunha, Bermuda, Muckle Flugga, and a score of others, was enormously interesting and the greatest of fun. But it was all made very much more rewarding by the kindness and assistance of a great many people, both Out There and Back Home; and though I remain haunted by the fear that I might have left out someone who put me up in his seaside house for a long weekend or loaned me his entire personal library of antiquarian works on maritime history, I hope in the few lines that follow to thank at least most of those without whose help the writing of this book would have proved quite impossible.

The idea of my writing about the Atlantic was in fact born on the shores of a competing sea, the Indian Ocean. One evening, on the terrace of the Galle Face Hotel in Colombo, the British writer and diplomat Tom Owen Edmunds, the Galle Literary Festival’s chief organizer Libby Southwell, my wife, Setsuko, and I were gazing into the sunset and chatting idly about the relative richness of the historical associations of the world’s great seas. As the evening wore on, it became abundantly clear that, lively though the Indian and Pacific oceans might be, in terms of the making of the modern world, the Atlantic could lay claim to having played a role that was infinitely livelier. So to Tom and Libby—now married and happily established in Islamabad—my thanks for assisting in the inspiration; and my gratitude to Setsuko, too, for seeing matters through from that point to this, and for her farsightedness, kindly patience, and endless practical support.

I soon discovered I was not alone in sporting a fascination for the Atlantic. Anne-Flore Laloë, at the University of Exeter, was at the time writing a thesis on the history of European and American intellectual connections with the ocean, and she jumped at the chance to be helpful. We met first at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, in the company of two researcher-curators on staff there, Claire Warrior and John McAleer. These three experts then established the beginnings of a paper trail for me, suggesting directions, books, libraries, and all the other paraphernalia I would need for my subsequent journeying, and I am grateful to them beyond measure. Anne-Flore, now Dr. Laloë, remained an enthusiastic supporter throughout, sharing her thoughts and discoveries as she assembled her own monumental work.

Deborah Cramer, in Boston, and Richard Ellis, in New York, have each written a number of critically acclaimed books about this ocean specifically and about the seas more generally and the life within them. Both gave unstintingly of their time and advice, and I am delighted to acknowledge their generosity of spirit and depth and breadth of their maritime knowledge.

Ted Nield, an old friend at the Geological Society of London, has written extensively about the formation and brief existences of the supercontinents, and was able to lead me down the maze of winding passageways that runs for the millions of years between Ur and Pangaea and up to the present day. John Dewey, a former Oxford geology professor now with emeritus standing at the University of California–Davis, kindly offered his thoughts on zircons and the origins of the earth, and his advice was augmented by insights from Stephen Moorbath, still at Oxford; Bruce Watson at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York; John Rogers at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill; and by robust rebuttals from the much-respected British critic of plate tectonics, Joe McCall.

Chris Scotese, known for creating legendary tectonic visions at his PALEOMAP Project at the University of Texas–Arlington, offered his valuable time and expertise, too; we happily use, on pages 41 and 446, his impeccably crafted images of the imagined surface of the world as it probably once was and in time may well be.

Among others who took the time and trouble to help, I most gratefully mention: Amir Aczel in Cambridge, Massachusetts; David Agnew and Martin Collins, who, from their offices in London and the Falkland Islands respectively, gave wise counsel about the state of South Atlantic fisheries; Lesley Bellus and the staff of Wilderness Safaris in Windhoek, Namibia, who helped me with accommodation and logistics on the Skeleton Coast; Renee Braden, archivist of the National Geographic Society, who provided me with a wealth of early cartographic information; Kent Brooks of the University of Copenhagen, who advised about the ice conditions off the East Greenland coast; Penny Chisholm of MIT, to whom Amir Aczel introduced me, and who gave me the latest information on her phytoplanktonic discoveries; Charles Clover in London, who writes about the environmental impact of ocean fishing; Simon Day and Bill McGuire in London, experts on the possible impending collapse of the great Cumbre Vieja volcano in the Canary Islands; Susan Eaton in Calgary and Gregory McHone of Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick, who together helped me to understand the notion of congruent margins—the geological “fitting together”—around the North Atlantic coast; Chris Ehret of the University of California–Los Angeles, Curtis Marean of Arizona State University and Sarah Tishkoff of the University of Pennsylvania, who research the origins of humankind in southern Africa; Paul Falkowski of Rutgers University, who made a series of very specialized undersea Atlantic maps available to me; Dennis Feltgen and Chris Landsea of the National Hurricane Center in Miami; Ed Hill, director of the National Oceanographic Centre in Southampton, England; Ian Hogg of Tsawwassen, British Columbia, whose company I enjoyed in the South Atlantic and who later kindly read chapter 4, and as a former Royal Navy officer with a keen knowledge of warfare, made critical comments; Susana Lopez Lallana of Cordoba, Argentina, who made useful contacts for me on the Isla de los Estados; Paul Marston and Richard Goodfellow of British Airways in London, who arranged a detailed preflight briefing for me on the progress of Speedbird 113 between Heathrow and Kennedy airports; Captain Christopher Melhuish, USN (Ret.), former commander of the USS
Constitution
and now a civilian policy planner with U.S. Navy Fleet Forces HQ in Norfolk, Virginia; Eyda Merediz of the University of Maryland, who has written about the Canary Islands; David Morley, colonial administrator of the British territory of Tristan da Cunha; Iain Orr, a former British diplomat and now biodiversity champion in London; Alex Roland of Duke University, a specialist in the commercial shipping history of the North Atlantic; Jenny and Murray Sayle, now of Sydney, Australia, whose marriage essentially originated when Murray singlehanded his way most of the way across the ocean in a small yacht, comforted through the storms by Jenny on the radio in Newport, Rhode Island; Patricia Seed of the University of California–Irvine, who gave great help on early Portuguese navigators in the South Atlantic, especially Gil Eannes and the attempts to double Cape Bojador; Kirsten Shepherd-Barr of Oxford University, who led me into the byways of Faroese literature; Athena Trakadas, of the National Oceanographic Centre, Southampton, who explained in absorbing detail just how purple dye was extracted from the murex of Essaouira; Captain Robert Ward, a director of the International Hydrographic Organization in Monaco; and Mary Wills of the University of Hull, whose field is the study of the suppression of the slave trade.

I must thank Sir Richard Gozney, HM Governor of Bermuda, for his kindness as well as for the hospitality generously offered both by him and Lady Gozney on my visit to the Crown Colony at the time of the 400th anniversary of the island’s European settlement.

Carol Zall, of the BBC/WGBH program
The World
, was very supportive of my travels. Cybele Tom, then of Oxford University Press in New York, gave me many useful pointers when I first conceived of this book, and its structure to a considerable degree reflects the wisdom of her words. And, as always, my indefatigable oldest son Rupert Winchester, in London, was on hand to help whenever I needed something looked up, or checked, or an errand performed: my debt to him for help with all of my recent work is immense.

If this book eventually merits any favorable attention—and of course, any errors or infelicities are entirely my own—then it will be due in large part to the irreplaceable skills of my New York editor, Henry Ferris. This is the third book on which we have collaborated, and though he is a decidedly tough editor, his thoughtfulness and courtesy have conspired to make this most necessary of processes much more than merely bearable. Traditionally in the creation of a book it is the research and the writing that are the fun parts, with the editing the time for payback. Not so with Henry: I find these days that I look forward to receiving his notes, however vividly stated and numerous his editorial suggestions may be. His tireless efforts result in the making of a much better book, and so if you like what you hold and read today, you should know who really deserves the credit.

He is also a genius at selecting assistants. Peter Hubbard, now deservedly promoted within HarperCollins, still offers pertinent and helpful comments; his successor, Danny Goldstein, has risen amply to the occasion, and dealt with all the trickiness of putting a book of this complexity together with adroitness, efficiency, and endless good cheer. In London I have also greatly enjoyed working with Martin Redfern, who has so skillfully guided the making of the British version of the book.

And finally, I raise a glass or two to my agents at William Morris Endeavor—in New York, the astonishingly energetic Suzanne Gluck, assisted first by Sarah Ceglarski and Elizabeth Tingue, and more recently by Caroline Donofrio and Mina Shaghaghi; and in London, the magically capable Eugenie Furniss. Bless you all, and thank you.

SW

Sandisfield, Massachusetts

July 2010

About the Author

SIMON WINCHESTER
is the acclaimed author of many books, including
The Professor and the Madman
,
The Man Who Loved China
,
A Crack in the Edge of the World
, and
Krakatoa
. Those books were
New York
Times bestsellers and appeared on numerous best and notable lists. In 2006, Mr. Winchester was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Her Majesty The Queen. He lives in Manhattan and in western Massachusetts.

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