The Great Explorers

The European Discovery of America

By: Samuel Eliot Morison

Narrated by: Frederick Davidson

The great voyages of discovery to the New World are here brought to life by one of the 20th century's most eminent historians, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Samuel Morison.

A master seaman himself, Morison personally retraced the voyages of the early explorers, charting his travels in maps and photographs and comparing these to the maps and travelogues of the early sailors. The resulting two-volume The European Discovery of America was widely acclaimed both for its author's incomparable knowledge of history, cartography, and sea navigation and for the fresh immediacy of its writing.

The Great Explorers abridges this great work, following the voyages of Columbus, Magellan, Drake, and many more. Here is the fascinating story of these explorers' ventures into uncharted waters, their encounters with natives, and their joy - and surprise - at discovering new land.

©1978 Oxford University Press (P)1995 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"What a story! And how worthily the writer tells it!.... To read this book is to be a privileged passenger on the bridge beside a master mariner who... imparts the wisdoms of the deep in tones of a salty tang - brisk, skeptical, yet always measured." ( The New York Times Book Review)"One of the most readable and gripping histories in decades." ( Boston Globe)"In all ways admirable, written with wit and easy scholarship.... [Morison] at his entertaining best." ( The New Yorker)

Great content,horrible recording

the audio kept skipping. It was very frustrating. I kept checking if I had it on fast forward.

Good Book, but don't download until audible fixes the skipping

This book has some serious skipping issues. After talking with customer service and re-downloading it 3 extra times as an failed attempt to mend the issue, the second half of the book still skipped very often, making it hard to follow. I would buy this until audible confirms they have fixed the issue.

Now for a review of the book. It was good and the composition of knowledge about this topic was impressive. The narrator has a pretty strong accent, which sometimes made it harder to follow as well. There wasn't great character buildup until he got into Columbus, Magellan and Drake, making it obvious that the author probably knows more and prefers those explorers. Still a good book, though at times it feels like your being read a text book by Scar from the Lion King.
Definitely worth a listen once they fix the skipping.

Skips at the recording

Great work. Amazing story. Some parts are skipped at the recording and don’t seem to be a device issue.

'So Far' No Problems

I'm purposely doing this review in stages while listening because of so many people mentioning skipping problems. I'm 5 hours in and no skipping problem so far. Great book, good reading, no problems 'yet'.
14 hours 30 minutes no skipping problem yet.

First skip occurs 16 hours 12 minutes in.
The skipping isn't constant, several portions are abundant with skips but others can go almost an hour or more without skipping. I would still get this audiobook again knowing the extent of the skipping. It is a problem but most skips you can glean what they were saying in between.

Marvelous sea knowledge

And I thought I knew all about these brave astronauts of the blue water. This book is for those that know the sea, or thought they did, as this book takes you to the unknown, and the author surely did some great research to pen a book such as this.