The Prize of All the Oceans - Softcover

Williams, Glyndwr

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141002263 ISBN 13: 9780141002262

Publisher: Penguin, 2001

Synopsis

The action-packed true story of Commodore Anson's legendary 1740 mission to capture a Spanish galleon on the high seas chronicles the British officer's subsequent disastrous campaign that resulted mutiny, starvation, and heroism. Reprint..

About this title

From the Back Cover:

The misadventures of Anson's voyage of 1740-44 make a dramatic story. Only one ship completed the mission, the rest were wrecked, scuttled or forced back shattered. Of the nineteen hundred officers and men who wailed form Spithead, almost fourteen hundred died, most from disease or starvation. Ravaged by scurvy and battered by relentless storms, by the times Anson reached the Chinese coast in November 1742 he was only left with one ship and a handful of men, some of whom had 'turned mad and idiots'. Despite this, he was determined to capture 'the Prize of All the Oceans', the legendary Spanish treasure ship making its annual voyage from Acapulco to Manila...The book's most lasting impression is of Anson's own fortitude against all the odds – a commander who watched helplessly while his crews died in their hundreds, who hauled ropes alongside his men and tended them when they were ill; but who never wavered in his determination to return home triumphant.

'Remarkable...never was there a tale which joined such horror and pity, disaster and triumph, such fortitude I adversity. Glyn Williams' narrative brings out all the drama of the story...an admirable retelling of a tragic and heroic tale. Nobody else could have done Anson justice as Williams has done, and no one will now need to do so again.
N A M RODGER 'TLS'

'Staggeringly good.. 'The Prize of All the Oceans' is the best book I've read in ages.'
ANDREW ROBERTS

About the Author:

Glyn Williams has been Professor of History at Queen Mary and Westfield College since 1974. His main teaching interests are the history of exploration, the history of Europe overseas, and British imperial history. He has travelled and lectured in Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand and the West Indies. He is Emeritus Professor of the University of London. He lives in Kent.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0141002263
• ISBN 13: 9780141002262
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288