The Prize of all the Oceans
Glyn Williams
The Prize of all the Oceans - Viking Adult - 352 pages
The power of the sea and man's fragility as he confronts it are terrifyingly portrayed in this rousing, historic round-the-world treasure hunt In 1740, in the first year of war with Spain, Commodore George Anson set sail with a squadron of six British warships. His secret mission, prowling the world's longest, richest, most far-flung ocean trade route, was to seize the legendary Spanish galleon on her yearly voyage from Acapulco to Manila laden with Peruvian silver, "the prize of all the oceans."It was to be a four-year litany of hardship, disaster, mutiny, and heroism. Only one ship, Centurion, achieved its goal; the others were wrecked, scuttled, or forced back in tatters. Of more than 1900 crewmen, almost 1400 perished of disease or starvation.Historian Glyn Williams's The Prize of All the Oceans shapes Anson's dramatic voyage into a powerful narrative threaded with incisive analysis and commentary. At its center is a colorful portrait of a commander who hauled ropes alongside his men, tended their sickness, and watched them die by the hundreds--but never wavered in his resolve to capture the prize that would bring him untold wealth and return home triumphant. Anson's voyage would change the course of naval history. Glyn Williams tells the full story for the first time in a book that will rivet historians and armchair survivalists alike.
9780670891979
43903670
00038168
Geography & Travel
G420.A6
910.41
The Prize of all the Oceans - Viking Adult - 352 pages
The power of the sea and man's fragility as he confronts it are terrifyingly portrayed in this rousing, historic round-the-world treasure hunt In 1740, in the first year of war with Spain, Commodore George Anson set sail with a squadron of six British warships. His secret mission, prowling the world's longest, richest, most far-flung ocean trade route, was to seize the legendary Spanish galleon on her yearly voyage from Acapulco to Manila laden with Peruvian silver, "the prize of all the oceans."It was to be a four-year litany of hardship, disaster, mutiny, and heroism. Only one ship, Centurion, achieved its goal; the others were wrecked, scuttled, or forced back in tatters. Of more than 1900 crewmen, almost 1400 perished of disease or starvation.Historian Glyn Williams's The Prize of All the Oceans shapes Anson's dramatic voyage into a powerful narrative threaded with incisive analysis and commentary. At its center is a colorful portrait of a commander who hauled ropes alongside his men, tended their sickness, and watched them die by the hundreds--but never wavered in his resolve to capture the prize that would bring him untold wealth and return home triumphant. Anson's voyage would change the course of naval history. Glyn Williams tells the full story for the first time in a book that will rivet historians and armchair survivalists alike.
9780670891979
43903670
00038168
Geography & Travel
G420.A6
910.41