Reading list:

The Voyage of Saint Brendan
The First Voyage Around the World 1519-1522, Pigafetta (w/ Magellan)
Observations Made During a Voyage Round the World 1772-1775, John Reinold Forster (w/ Captain Cook)
The Arctic Whaling Journals of Wiliam Scoresby the Younger 1814-1816
Journal of a Voyage Around the World 1841-1842, Thomas Worthington King

*


An entry from the Pigafetta:

[44] The Antarctic Pole is not so starry as the Arctic. Many small stars clustered together are seen, which have the appearance of two clouds with little distance between them, and they are somewhat dim; in the midst of them are two large and not very luminous stars, which move only slightly: those two stars are the Antarctic Pole. Our loadstone, although it moved here and there, always pointed toward its own Arctic Pole, although it did not have so much strength as on its own side, and on that account when we were in that open expanse, the captain-general asked all the pilots: 'Are you still sailing forward in the course that we laid down on the maps?' All replied: 'By your course exactly as laid down.' He answered them that they were pointing wrongly, which was a fact, and that it would be fitting to adjust the compass, for it was receiving so much force from its side. When we were in the midst of that open expanse, we saw a cross with five extremely bright stars straight toward the west, those stars being exactly placed in relation to one another.