University of Delaware College of Marine Studies graduate Luc Cuyvers has long nurtured a deep and abiding interest in the sea.
Cuyvers, who graduated from UD with master’s and doctoral degrees and now lives in Antwerp, Belgium, says his fascination with the ocean “goes back a long time,” dating from his first vacations along the coast.

“That’s true for a lot of people,” Cuyvers says, “but I wanted to know more, so I went on to study marine biology at the New College of Florida and then continued with graduate work at UD.”

During this time, he took an interest in writing and filming on topics related to the sea, which he says “is not always treated fairly on television, which has a preoccupation with sharks, whales and oil spills.”

That led to a number of television presentations and accompanying books on the oceans, including such works as Into the Rising Sun: Vasco da Gama and the Search for the Sea Route to the East and Sea Power: A Global Journey.

“My continuing interest is driven by the fact that I just love to be near the ocean and in or near boats,” Cuyvers says, “and also by the fact that there are so many good stories yet to be written, yet to be filmed.”

The most recent project by Cuyvers is Setting Sail:10,000 Years of Seafaring Adventure, which includes a four-part television series that aired on The Discovery Channel’s high definition network and is available on DVD and a colorful book published by Tide-Mark Press of Windsor, Conn.

The series and book tell the story of humankind’s quest to cross the seas, examining the subject from a variety of cultural perspectives and providing fresh insights on the history of ocean travel.

Setting Sail is unique for its multicultural approach to the history of sailing ships. The book looks first at the early Polynesian explorers who covered thousands of nautical miles, then turns its attention to the sailors of China and the Middle East before discussing the era of sail in Europe that resulted in the extension of Western economic and political power around the globe.

“I suppose that came out of a desire to be fair,” Cuyvers says of the book’s order. “Maritime history was mostly written by Western historians, who often relegated the achievements of other cultures to a footnote. That is not fair, because these other cultures also achieved impressive things at sea, and often did so far before their Western counterparts.

“Besides, the West could never have achieved what it did at sea without liberally borrowing from the others by adopting the compass and the lateen sail, to name a few.”

Cuyvers says he hopes the book will help people “take a broader view, gain an appreciation for other cultures and a develop a fascination for how different peoples sometimes found different solutions to the same problem.”

The book is aimed at a wide audience, Cuyvers says, explaining, “Too many sailing books focus solely on the nuts and bolts of the trade, and that only interests the hard-core sailors, I think. My desire was to put the story a bit more in a geographical and cultural context. In a way, it is a look at world history seen through maritime glasses, and it provides some interesting insights.”

The title of the book, “setting sail,” has a double-edged meaning, Cuyvers says, in considering early seafaring but also recognizing that the golden age of sail has passed.

“Setting sail can be construed to mean that the sails are setting, and they are indeed,” he says. “In that sense, the book represents a tribute to the age of sail and the few survivors that are still around. But, it is also a tribute to what these ships taught us–discipline, respect, teamwork and ingenuity, all the things needed to master or manage something large and unpredictable, like the sea, with something very small and limited, like a boat. As these ships disappear or move to museums, I hope we don’t forget the lessons they taught us.”

Cuyvers says he enjoys sailing, having lived for several years on a boat in Annapolis, Md., adding that he is “not a fanatic, by any means.” However, he never passes up opportunities to sail on traditional vessels, such as dhows and junks, “because they are real and they are about to disappear forever.”

At UD, Cuyvers says he had “a terrific experience,” citing “a solid education, a terrific adviser in Gerard Mangone [University Research Professor of International and Maritime Law] and the freedom to wander from the traditional curriculum to explore other interests, like filmmaking.”

“There is no question that the University played an instrumental role in helping me to do what I like doing best, and, hopefully, doing it well,” he says.