The Prize of All the Oceans: The Dramatic True Story of Commodore Anson's Voyage Round the World and How He Seized the Spanish Treasure Galleon

Often mentioned but rarely discussed in any detail, Anson's multi-year voyage around the world with the capture of the Manila galleon is one of the epic events in nautical history. Glyn Williams takes a scholarly approach, but it would be impossible to make the tale boring even if he'd wanted to. Starting off with six ships, Anson is soon reduced to one, his own, the Centurion. Nearly marooned on the Marianas, Anson and the survivors capture the Manila galleon, and return to Britain fabulously wealthy; Predictably - numerous lawsuits result. Anson eventually comes to head the Royal Navy during the next conflict, the Seven Years War.

For myself, I have a high standard for my reading: I want to be a different person on the last page than I was on the first. As John Adams said, Everything should be done with reflection. So, if you can't manage even a modicum of personal growth from your reading, the time could have been spent equally productively twittling your thumbs. The Prize of All the Oceans by Gwyn Williams, though bargain-priced from most sources, is illuminating on multiple levels. Besides providing stirring examples of courage, weakness, incredible hardship, inspired leadership and mindless bureaucracy, Williams also demonstrates how to write a gripping and moving history book. I would recommend The Prize of All the Oceans to anyone that did not sail aboard one of Commodore Anson's ships around the world to capture the treasure-ladened galleon that oscillated annually betwixt Manila and Acapulco in the mid 18th century: they already know the story.

This is the sort of book I find hard to put down.From the very beginning, the reader finds themselves constantly amazed that Anson made it ten miles from Britain, let alone circumnavigated the globe, achieved the goal of siezing the Manila galleon and, for good measure, ransacked a city or two in faraway South America.Anson lost over 70% of his men, the remaining ones hardly fit to work, he lost most of his ships for one reason or another however he never lost hope and this, ultimately, led to him capturing the Prize of all the Oceans. A thoroughly enjoyable, well-researched book from Mr Williams.

Though most of us flinch or wince at the thought of 'cracking open the history books' no one should be apprehensive to read this excellently written narrative of a little known piece of maritime history. I hadn't heard of George Anson, the Spanish Treasure Galleon or any other of the details that are covered in this book but that didn't prevent me from an early fascination with it. I had only briefly read portions of the opening chapters while in a bookstore and wasn't able to purchase it because I had committed to purchasing other books already. It made an immediate impact on me and quite naturally made my reading list; someone surprised me at work a few short months later by bringing this in for me to read. It took me only a few days to absorb this harrowing and dramatic British naval tale; in fact I was quite upset that it was so short a read! Not since my reading of Larry McMurtry's 'Lonesome Dove' have I been so disappointed to get to the end of a book and find there was no more reading left.Filled with high adventure, heroic journeys, unconscionable suffering and considerable heartbreak 'Prize' is gripping to the very end. Each of the seven ships in the squadron has a story worth recounting and Williams manages to fit each ships' tale within his book. My personal favorite portion of 'Prize' is the chapter titled "The Missing Ships" which details the loss of three of them, and in particular I found the story of the Wager the most compelling. If the author had only taken to tell the saga of this singular ship and it's crew and miseries it would have been worth reading for it alone. Their story of shipwreck, survival, mutiny and reclamation is of mythical proportions but incredibly it is all too true.Eminently readable Williams has crafted a terrifying account of a naval squadron of British ships hopelessly undermanned, ravaged by disease and starvation and beaten severely by incredible sea storms, that somehow defy all odds and manage to accomplish their lofty and seemingly out of reach goal. Though the cost is high - Anson loses nearly two-thirds of the crew - the author prevents us from becoming one-dimensional in our thinking and keeps us intrigued through his expert analysis and interpretation of all the historical documents still in existence. Williams was even fortunate to have uncovered a diary kept by one of the squadron's officers that helped to illuminate some areas of contention that had long been a source of squabbling among historians. Twenty years in the making, 'The Prize Of All The Oceans' is almost certain to be classified the definitive account of this page in history. The author's research is faultless and unquestionable as you'll note by the inclusion of many footnotes as well two appendixes. Not just recommended reading but a must for anyone who reads; this is a book that will thrill any reader and live in their imagination long after they have finished it.

Anson's circumnavigation of the world in the early 1740s was an upshot of that strange Anglo-Spanish conflict we now call the "War of Jenkins' Ear." The master plan of the Admiralty was to capture the entire west coast of South America, including modern day Chile, Peru and Panama. Bizarrely, this plan was to be effected by a small fleet of wormy old boats populated, in the main, by press-ganged sailors and pensioner soldiers. As Williams recounts, the death toll was extraordinay and Anson's eventual triumph little short of a miracle. There is a fascinating sub-plot (equally well recounted in Richard Hough's "The Blind Horn's Hate"), dealing with the wreck of the "Wager" along the south coast of Chile and the epic attempts of the various survivors to get back to England. Terrific adventure.