Wreckers: Disaster in the Age of Discovery

Wreckers sinks the old narratives of imperialism, revealing the violent, chaotic and improvised reality of empire-building from the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries. 'Clever and compelling book. The storytelling and the scholarship fairly spark off each other.It could be a model for how academics should write history for a general audience' The Times‘A flowing, gripping narrative, Wreckers is distinguished by enchanting stories’ Peter Moore, Literary ReviewWhile figures such as Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama and Ferdinand Magellan are celebrated for their maritime achievements - reaching the Americas, India, and circumnavigating the globe - focusing solely on these voyages distorts our perspective on the past.Many explorers ended up as castaways, clinging to the splintered timbers of their wrecked ships, while those who survived often faced resistance and ridicule from indigenous communities across the globe. Drawing on maritime stories from various languages and continents - fr