Longitude by Dava Sobel
Many thousands of lives had been lost at sea over the centuries due to the inability to plot an east-west position. It was however, the shipwreck of Sir Cloudsley Shovel’s fleet off the Scilly Isles in 1707 that finally forced Parliament into action by offering an award for the discovery of a method for determining longitude. This is Dava Sobel’s account of how John Harrison against all the odds and after 40 years perseverance finally produced the world's most accurate chronometer, which would transform the world of navigation. This is a book of science for the layman, but also a very human story told with depth and feeling.