The southern hemisphere is mainly land. So said medieval Europeans,
raised on a heady brew of folklore, biblical revelation and geographical
theory. It is how they imagined it. So powerful was the hold of this
received wisdom that when geographical discoveries, however
insignificant, were made in the southern oceans, they were greeted as
evidence that the expected continental landmasses, rich and fertile,
might at last have been found.
This predisposition was mercilessly exploited by writers with a view to
propound or a barrow to push. The history of southern maritime
exploration is therefore one of frustration, deception and
self-deception, a process of eliminating the corners in which something
bigger and better might still be hiding. This book tells the story of
the inventors who sent the dream abroad and the discoverers who brought
the reality home, sometimes in spite of themselves.