The Prize of All the Oceans

Download or read book The Prize of All the Oceans written by Glyndwr Williams and published by Penguin Group. This book was released on 2001 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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, finally, heroism. 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. Glyn Williams tells the full story for the first time in a book that will rivet history buffs and armchair survivalists alike. - Back cover.