Across the Atlantic

PHANTOM ISLANDS OF THE ATLANTIC - The Legends of Seven Lands that Never Were: Donald S. Johnson; Souvenir Press, 43, Great Russell Street, London WC1B3PA. œ.14.99.

THE AUTHOR of the book under review has written numerous articles on sailing, navigation and maritime history. He has a thorough knowledge of sailing and has crossed the Atlantic five times in a small boat, a 27-foot schooner. His first book, Charting the Sea of Darkness: The Four Voyages of Henry Hudson, revealed the difficulties the British explorer had to face when sailing across the Atlantic in the first decade of the 17th century, without the aid of dependable maps or other navigational aids. The book under review is about islands which appeared in many maps of the Atlantic, without any factual basis.

The first sailors, who ventured across the Atlantic were completely on their own. Geographic thought and cartography, even in the 15th century, were based on the methods of Ptolemy, who lived in the second century A.D. With various European powers - Spain, Portugal, England, and France - launching expeditions to the New World, better maps of the western reaches of the Atlantic Ocean were produced. The outlines of North America became more accurate, as new information based on the accounts brought back by sailors was incorporated into the old maps.

Many islands on these maps seemed to have a life of their own; they continually shifted around, till they disappeared altogether. The author traces the fate of seven such islands, and recounts the legends that made them real to the cartographers of the time.

He does not discuss Atlantis, the most famous of these mythical lands, as it has received a lot of attention from other writers.

The first chapter, ``Mapping the unknown seas'' is very informative; it traces the growth of geography and map-making over the centuries. The remaining seven chapters are about different ``phantom'' islands like the ``Isle of demons'', Frisland, Buss Island, and ``Antillia; the isle of seven cities''. In some cases, there is a real island which could have formed the basis of the sailors' stories. The ``Isle of demons'' is probably the present day Isle of birds or Fichot island, located on the bleak and savage northern extremity of Newfoundland. It was said to be inhabited by mythological creatures like the gryphon and evil spirits. Many sailors testified to the wild clamour of confused voices they heard.

The author suggests that what they heard is the cacophony of nesting birds. Gannets and auks are normally silent, but when nesting they ``utter low moans, quacks, and croaks, the males give a whistling call, and the females a resonant trumpeting.''

The European ships were timed to arrive in Newfoundland during the nesting season of the birds, and the sailors, encountering fog and mist as they approached land, imagined that they were hearing demons.

Some islands are based purely on legends: the islands of St. Brendan were a promised land colonised by St. Brendan, a sixth century voyager. The Virgin islands were ostensibly discovered by St. Ursula, a fifth century martyr, when she was travelling from Britain towards Rome with 1,000 virgins.

The book is very interesting. The lucid prose effectively transposes the reader to the age of discovery. Many maps reproduced in it give us an insight into the progress of cartography over the centuries. Even those who are not interested in exploration can enjoy this book for the fascinating medieval legends it contains.

SHYAMALA A. NARAYAN

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