Ships and Shipwrecks of the Early Stuart Dynasty

Book excerpt: This unique book encompasses in a single volume data including lists of ships and ship types in the service of King James I and Charles I, as well as the East India Company. The bare facts are enlivened by logs and narratives from shipwreck survivors relating the perils of seeking the Northwest Passage or sailing to India. The author has found that many facts have been distorted on informative websites as a result of incomplete and embellished information. This book attempts to correct those errors. For each of the wrecks contained in this book, Mr. Taylor has attempted, if the wording of the documents is ambiguous, to determine the fate of these ships based on only the facts as they were recorded at the time. If in doubt, he would explain his reasoning. In his efforts to collect and share all sailing and wreck-related data in this volume, Mr. Taylor has reviewed hundreds of electronic and hard-copy manuscript archival collections and travelled to view rare and wonderful, sometimes hand-illuminated, manuscripts that have not been digitized. However, as much as he would like to believe he has uncovered everything, it is easy to imagine that more details could come to light at some time. Treasure has different meanings to different people. Some of these wrecks contain Spanish reales (“pieces of 8”), jewels, gold and silver bars that could not be recovered at the time and have since been forgotten. Written records of such events were reviewed by fewer people over the centuries and ended up buried in dark archives, until now. But some of us define treasure as knowledge, ensuring that facts are presented correctly to future generations. This is the goal Mr. Taylor strives for in these volumes.