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Speedwell Voyage: A Tale of Piracy and Mutiny in the Eighteenth Century
In this first nonfiction retelling since Commander Shelvocke's 1726 published account, a Royal Navy veteran narrates the South Seas adventures of the English privateer Speedwell in procuring Spanish booty. Includes a glossary of vintage sailing terms. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (boo
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
190 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 1999
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 19, 2008
Kind of dry, unless you like lists of what ships passed and what ships had nothing on them and factual ocean going writing. But the depiction of life at sea and what a chance it was...
February 13, 2012
This is, bar none, the worst book of naval history I've ever read. It's one of the worst books I've ever read, period. It's dry and dull, though it recounts one of the wildest and most exciting sea adventures ever. And even though it does have some useful information in it, extracting it would be so painful that I wouldn't recommend trying. There are a few illustrations in the book, but I'm not sure what purpose they serve. Some were so bad I couldn't figure out what was being represented.
I wanted to dismiss the book as one of the last works of a dotty old man (although I have no idea if the author is alive or dead; the jacket tells me he wrote 24 other books, which I hope are better than this one). You know, the sort of old guy with his belt hitched up to his man-boobs who likes telling sea tales?
The more I thought about it, the more I started to feel sorry for that old guy. I even toyed with not writing a review, out of respect for the man's relations, who might one day google his name -- except there are nasty, racist comments and completely random ravings about socialism and trade unions in the book.
For that, I'm willing to take the chance that the author's relations will hate me. I'm sorry, Poolmans everywhere, but this book absolutely sucks. Everyone else, beware.
I wanted to dismiss the book as one of the last works of a dotty old man (although I have no idea if the author is alive or dead; the jacket tells me he wrote 24 other books, which I hope are better than this one). You know, the sort of old guy with his belt hitched up to his man-boobs who likes telling sea tales?
The more I thought about it, the more I started to feel sorry for that old guy. I even toyed with not writing a review, out of respect for the man's relations, who might one day google his name -- except there are nasty, racist comments and completely random ravings about socialism and trade unions in the book.
For that, I'm willing to take the chance that the author's relations will hate me. I'm sorry, Poolmans everywhere, but this book absolutely sucks. Everyone else, beware.
July 4, 2008
Chapter One was a chore to decipher; Chapter Two was better, but not by much. I didn't make it past Chapter Three.
August 30, 2014
Loved this story
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews