The First Circumnavigators
Harry Kelsey, The First Circumnavigators: Unsung Heroes of the Age of Discovery (Yale University Press, 2016)
Summary: A fluid and vibrant account of five 16th-century Spanish sailing expeditions into the Pacific Ocean. Fascinating tales of stranded sailors, lost ships, greedy mutineers, morally ambivalent pirates, both hostile and friendly islanders, and the mundane details of sailing into the unknown. Notable for its near-gossipy level of detail about the crews and their captains, a focus on how we know what we know, and highlighting the all-important return voyage. Also includes useful maps and an impressive appendix containing biographies of those "accidental circumnavigators" profiled in the book. Concise and extremely readable.
Key Quote: "Magellan and the captains who followed him are more or less well known, and their accomplishments are celebrated in historical studies, pictures, and monuments. But the men who manned the ships—the seamen, soldiers, and adventurers who made it all possible and lived to tell the tale—have remained largely anonymous...They were the first people to sail all the way around the world, but they did so unintentionally, for there was no other way to return home. They were accidental circumnavigators." - p. xvii
Bottom Line: Read this book if you've lost your sense of adventure and would like to rediscover it with some true stories of derring-do.
