Lost Islands: The Story of Islands That Have Vanished from Nautical Charts

Margaret McGrath was a research librarian at St. Michael's College, University of Toronto.

Until well into the nineteenth century, navigational methods were frequently so inaccurate that oceanic charts were deceptive and unreliable. It is no wonder, then, that small islands could be reported in more than one place and volcanic reefs or even icebergs inaccurately described and recorded as navigational hazards.

The author of this work is an oceanographer at the Woods Hole, Massachusetts, Oceanographic Institute. The fascination of such errors to a marine scientist is understandable, but this attempt to make them interesting, let alone romantic, to a non-professional is a failure.

In 22 truncated chapters, he treats a selection of these non-existent islands. In some cases he is able to describe how the inaccuracies may have happened, and the voyages and personalities involved. Aside from maps, he provides little corroborating data and no critical apparatus, so the text does not exude authority. The one-page bibliography lists four “main published sources” and a longer list of “interesting books.”

Nor, on the other hand, can his jerky and episodic style come even close to the romantic mood projected by the literary allusions in the preface. The enchantment of illusory islands has been transmitted by such divergent authors as the medieval chronicle of St. Brendan the Navigator and Rodgers and Hammerstein. This is wooden.

The only substantial quality the work has is in its format — hard cover, good paper and design, and a hefty price.