Conquering the Pacific: An Unknown Mariner and the Final Great Voyage of the Age of Discovery
The discovery by Spanish sailors that one could sail across the Pacific from Mexico to the Philippines and return was one of the major finds during the Age of Discovery in the 1500s. While a number of voyages had circled the globe, no explorers were able to make the trip from the Philippines back to the New World successfully; they either started too early or too late and missed the favorable turn of the monsoon winds. But one ship was able to make the turn successfully and showed how it could be done.
This book tells, somewhat loosely, of the pilot who led the small ship back across the Pacific with a mutinous crew, allegations of desertion, and more. While it is interesting to read about the life and times of a member of a historic voyage, a large portion of the book is not really about the pilot and how he overcame all the odds to find the path back; the voyage could easily have failed. Most of the book is about others involved in the voyage, a general overview of the Age of Discovery, and the rivalry between Portugal and Spain.
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Star Count | 3/5 |
Format | Hard |
Page Count | 304 pages |
Publisher | Mariner Books |
Publish Date | 14-Sep-2021 |
ISBN | 9781328515971 |
Bookshop.org | Buy this Book |
Issue | October 2021 |
Category | History |
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