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Ocean Exploration
This is a list of non-fiction books on the history of oceanography. Can e.g. include biographies of oceanographers as well as accounts of expeditions. Please add if you know any!
P.S. this list just got a whole lot of entries with books more focused on marine biology, e.g. describing specific species. There are already lists for those books. This one should really focus on the stories behind human exploration of the oceans and history of science, rather than the science itself!
P.S. this list just got a whole lot of entries with books more focused on marine biology, e.g. describing specific species. There are already lists for those books. This one should really focus on the stories behind human exploration of the oceans and history of science, rather than the science itself!
Score
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| 1 |
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Early Man and the Ocean: A Search for the Beginnings of Navigation & Seaborne Civilizations
by
4.11 avg rating — 90 ratings
score: 264,
and
3 people voted
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| 2 |
|
Preparing the Ghost: An Essay Concerning the Giant Squid and Its First Photographer
by
Matthew Gavin Frank (Goodreads Author)
3.77 avg rating — 265 ratings
score: 247,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 3 |
|
Cook : The Extraordinary Voyages of Captain James Cook
by
3.89 avg rating — 181 ratings
score: 196,
and
2 people voted
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| 4 |
|
Exploring the Deep: Man, Machine and Mammals in the Quest to Conquer Earth's Last Frontier
by
2.50 avg rating — 2 ratings
score: 194,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 5 |
|
Adventures in Ocean Exploration : From the Discovery of the Titanic to the Search for Noah's Flood
by
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 42 ratings
score: 186,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 6 |
|
The Ocean of Life: The Fate of Man and the Sea
by
4.26 avg rating — 960 ratings
score: 182,
and
2 people voted
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| 7 |
|
The Conquest of the Ocean: An Illustrated History of Seafaring
by
3.83 avg rating — 167 ratings
score: 173,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 8 |
|
The Silent World
by
4.27 avg rating — 1,346 ratings
score: 167,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 9 |
|
Atlantic: Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms & a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories
by
3.76 avg rating — 5,213 ratings
score: 155,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 10 |
|
Life in the Ocean: The Story of Oceanographer Sylvia Earle
by
4.08 avg rating — 1,070 ratings
score: 154,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 11 |
|
Sea Power: The History and Geopolitics of the World's Oceans
by
James G. Stavridis (Goodreads Author)
3.73 avg rating — 1,660 ratings
score: 153,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 12 |
|
Beyond the Blue Horizon: How the Earliest Mariners Unlocked the Secrets of the Oceans
by
3.41 avg rating — 276 ratings
score: 152,
and
2 people voted
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| 13 |
|
The Search for the Giant Squid: The Biology and Mythology of the World's Most Elusive Sea Creature
by
3.70 avg rating — 621 ratings
score: 147,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 14 |
|
Sea of Glory: America's Voyage of Discovery, the U.S. Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842
by
Nathaniel Philbrick (Goodreads Author)
4.04 avg rating — 6,794 ratings
score: 143,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 15 |
|
The Silent Landscape: The Scientific Voyage of HMS Challenger
by
3.78 avg rating — 58 ratings
score: 100,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 15 |
|
Deep: Freediving, Renegade Science, and What the Ocean Tells Us about Ourselves
by
4.45 avg rating — 8,002 ratings
score: 100,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 15 |
|
The Cove Walking the Plank
by
it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 3 ratings
score: 100,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 18 |
|
Soundings: The Story of the Remarkable Woman Who Mapped the Ocean Floor
by
Hali Felt (Goodreads Author)
3.79 avg rating — 352 ratings
score: 99,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 18 |
|
Lost Liners: From the Titanic to the Andrea Doria The Ocean Floor Reveals Its Greatest Ships
by
4.36 avg rating — 270 ratings
score: 99,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 18 |
|
Wonders in the Deep
by
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 44 ratings
score: 99,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 21 |
|
Farthest North: The Incredible Three-Year Voyage to the Frozen Latitudes of the North
by
4.11 avg rating — 1,426 ratings
score: 98,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 21 |
|
The Oceans: A Deep History
by
3.72 avg rating — 54 ratings
score: 98,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 23 |
|
Voices in the Ocean: A Journey into the Wild and Haunting World of Dolphins
by
4.04 avg rating — 3,323 ratings
score: 97,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 24 |
|
The Empty Ocean
by
3.90 avg rating — 210 ratings
score: 96,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 25 |
|
Exploring the Deep Frontier: The Adventure of Man in the Sea
by
4.07 avg rating — 15 ratings
score: 95,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 25 |
|
Wild Ocean: Sharks, Whales, Rays, and Other Endangered Sea Creatures
by
3.88 avg rating — 66 ratings
score: 95,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 27 |
|
The Voyage of the Challenger
by
3.79 avg rating — 14 ratings
score: 93,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 27 |
|
Song for the Blue Ocean: Encounters Along the World's Coasts and Beneath the Seas
by
Carl Safina (Goodreads Author)
4.31 avg rating — 944 ratings
score: 93,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 29 |
|
Oceana: Our Endangered Oceans and What We Can Do to Save Them
by
4.22 avg rating — 302 ratings
score: 92,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 30 |
|
The World Is Blue: How Our Fate and the Ocean's Are One
by
4.27 avg rating — 1,292 ratings
score: 90,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 31 |
|
The Ends of the World: Volcanic Apocalypses, Lethal Oceans and Our Quest to Understand Earth's Past Mass Extinctions
by
Peter Brannen (Goodreads Author)
4.29 avg rating — 5,941 ratings
score: 89,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 32 |
|
Full Fathom Five: Ocean Warming and a Father's Legacy
by
Gordon Chaplin (Goodreads Author)
3.48 avg rating — 21 ratings
score: 87,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 33 |
|
Junk Raft: An Ocean Voyage and a Rising Tide of Activism to Fight Plastic Pollution
by
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 192 ratings
score: 85,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 33 |
|
The Ice Diaries: The Untold Story of the Cold War's Most Daring Mission
by
4.11 avg rating — 748 ratings
score: 85,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 35 |
|
The Tragedy of the Commodity: Oceans, Fisheries, and Aquaculture
by
4.24 avg rating — 25 ratings
score: 84,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 35 |
|
A Voyage for Madmen
by
Peter Nichols (Goodreads Author)
4.33 avg rating — 6,258 ratings
score: 84,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 37 |
|
Europe Between the Oceans: Themes and Variations, 9000 BC - AD 1000
by
4.13 avg rating — 637 ratings
score: 83,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 37 |
|
The Log from the Sea of Cortez
by
3.84 avg rating — 6,441 ratings
score: 83,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 39 |
|
Moby-Duck: The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea and of the Beachcombers, Oceanographers, Environmentalists, and Fools, Including the Author, Who Went in Search of Them
by
Donovan Hohn (Goodreads Author)
3.31 avg rating — 3,267 ratings
score: 82,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 40 |
|
Aglow in the Dark: The Revolutionary Science of Biofluorescence
by
4.25 avg rating — 28 ratings
score: 81,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 41 |
|
The Hungry Ocean: A Swordboat Captain's Journey
by
3.85 avg rating — 5,836 ratings
score: 80,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 42 |
|
The Ocean (Nature Panoram Series)
by
0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings
score: 79,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 43 |
|
The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean
by
4.04 avg rating — 11,391 ratings
score: 78,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 44 |
|
On the Ocean: The Mediterranean and the Atlantic from prehistory to AD 1500
by
4.28 avg rating — 58 ratings
score: 77,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 45 |
|
Shark Drunk: The Art of Catching a Large Shark from a Tiny Rubber Dinghy in a Big Ocean
by
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 5,588 ratings
score: 76,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 45 |
|
Sextant: The Elegant Instrument That Guided the Great Explorers, and a Young Man's First Journey Across the Atlantic
by
David Barrie (Goodreads Author)
3.97 avg rating — 781 ratings
score: 76,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 47 |
|
Orca: How We Came to Know and Love the Ocean's Greatest Predator
by
4.16 avg rating — 322 ratings
score: 75,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 47 |
|
Voyages and Discoveries: Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation
by
3.57 avg rating — 162 ratings
score: 75,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 49 |
|
The Last Voyage: Captain Cook's Lost Diary
by
3.58 avg rating — 38 ratings
score: 74,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 50 |
|
The Farfarers: Before the Norse
by
4.03 avg rating — 550 ratings
score: 73,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 51 |
|
The Human, the Orchid, and the Octopus: Exploring and Conserving Our Natural World
by
4.01 avg rating — 471 ratings
score: 71,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 52 |
|
Follow the Moon Home: A Tale of One Idea, Twenty Kids, and a Hundred Sea Turtles
by
4.23 avg rating — 951 ratings
score: 69,
and
1 person voted
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| 53 |
|
Manfish: A Story of Jacques Cousteau
by
Jennifer Berne (Goodreads Author)
4.15 avg rating — 1,862 ratings
score: 67,
and
1 person voted
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| 54 |
|
The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau
by
4.12 avg rating — 1,172 ratings
score: 66,
and
1 person voted
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