Rayner Unwin (1925–2000)

What adventurous and dangerous lives these men lived! Truly so!
A colourful account of Hawkins' seat of the pants privateering in West Africa and the Gulf of Mexico. High powered bravado and daring were the hallmarks of these adventurers.
The plights of the survivors of Hawkins' failure at Vera Cruz are just as much a part of this episode as the sea-faring. Some were victims of the Inquisition in Mexico' after having survived imprisonment, forced marches and a small few others made almost unbelievable journeys to return to England. The case of David Ingram's escape is still undecided as to its veracity.
Rayner Unwin of publisher Allen and Unwin, has written a first class story about this defeat of an English fleet in 1568. Francis Drake, Hawkins' young kinsman, features as one of the lucky ones in this story, prior to his later heroics.
Well worth reading, after finding it for sale for $2 at an opportunity shop.… (més)

I am of two minds about this book.
On the one hand, it is a detailed, fluent and highly-readable description of a daring adventurer operating in a fascinating period. English privateers were just beginning to roam the Atlantic ocean, in search of prey, any prey, be it Spanish gold, Eastern spices or African slaves. Pitted against them was the superpower of those days - pre-Armada Spain - which had the largest ocean-going galleons and the economic and political interest to run these privateers down. This book deftly unveils the man, the era and the balance of power between the power that be (Spain) and the power to be (England).
However, although he keeps saying that some details are unknown to us due to lack of documentation, the author reports as facts many events of which he cannot have certain knowledge, such as the contents of speeches by Hawkins to his crew, the agreements reached by Hawkins and the captains of ships he seized, the clothes worn by Hawkins on certain occasions (pure conjecture) and even the inner thoughts of some of the protagonists.
All in all, if you like history, this is an interesting book well worth your time.… (més)