The prize of all the oceans : the dramatic true story of Commodore Anson's vogage round the world and how he seized the Spanish treasure galleon / Glyn Williams.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Williams, Glyndwr.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Voyages around the world.

Anson, George Anson, Baron, 1697-1762.

Anson, George Anson.

Centurion (Ship).

Physical Description:

xxi, 264 pages : illustrations, maps, facsimiles ; 25 cm

Edition:

First American edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Viking, 2000.

Summary:

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 vessel, the flagship Centurion, achieved its goal; the others were wrecked, scuttled, or forced back in tatters. Of more than 1,900 crewmen, almost 1,400 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 sicknesses, 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 not only his life, but also 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.

Contents:

I A South Sea Venture 1

II The Ordeal Begins 29

III The Missing Ships 67

IV 'To Distress and Annoy the King of Spain' 104

V 'Words Cannot Express the Misery' 131

VI The Prize of All the Oceans 159

VII Confrontation at Canton 176

VIII Homecoming: Acclamation and Recrimination 201

IX Past and Future 219

Appendix 1 A Literary Puzzle: The Authorship of / Anson's Voyage 237.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [242]-254) and index.

ISBN:

0670891975

OCLC:

43903670