The Speedwell Voyage: A Tale of Piracy and Mutiny in the Eighteenth Century

I have read many books about life on the sea in the age of square sail wooden ships and you'll enjoy this one if you like reading this kind of literature. It seems as though I always learn something new about life in that time and Poolman provides this education along with an incredible tale about the Speedwell voyage. He describes the characters and the events based on actual writings which are well footnoted. His glossary of the nautical terms relative to this story was a nice addition. How those sailors survived the many hardships and sea battles was amazing. Of particular interest is the insight Poolman gives into the many real life characters, the mutinies, the privateering contracts of the day and the international politics of the times.

The cover of this book compares it to the Endurance. Well, I disagree. This is a very enjoyable read, and the adventure is certainly there but this book only rates 3 1/2 stars for me. First of all the author tries to rate the commander of the Speedwell and he is a difficult character to rate. He is a master sailor, but he also usurps the authority of his commander and the owners. As time has passed, he has become respectable whereas some of the other characters are termed felons, mutineers, and socialists. Since this happened way back in the 1719-1720 period, it is hard to get a good handle on all the personalities from the ship. As stated, the adventure is certainly in this book. These British seamen were all privateers wanting the partake of the riches of the Spanish Main. They raided ships and wrecked their own ship. They were marooned on an island where they constructed a ship to escape. After several more captures of Spanish ships, they sailed across the Pacific in a worn out vessel and eventually some of the crew returned to Great Britain. This was the best part of the read. The reader will gain a little history of sailor's living conditions during this time and the Great Power politics of Great Britain, Spain, and France.

This is the true story of the privateering voyage of the Speedwell and another ship named the Success, the purpose of which was to take Spanish prizes in the Pacific (hopefully the Manilla Galleon, which carried gold from South America to Manilla). Things don't go very well for the captain and crew of the Speedwell and the voyage ends up being more a quest for survival than a quest for Spanish gold. Although the Spanish display their usual ineptitude for fighting at sea, they do sort of peck away at the Speedwell and her crew, which also suffers loses from storms and disease. Poolman tells the story in a straightforward, fast-paced style. At times he is able to convey fairly profound ideas with very few words. For example, he describes how the crew of the Speedwell struggle mightily as they try to round Cape Horn. Then he describes the albatross that is following them; how he can fly for a week without flapping his wings once. He ends the description with this: "He drinks seawater". The implication being, of course, that although experienced seamen might think they have saltwater in their veins, they are, in reality, very much out of their element. Poolman doesn't get bogged down relating more than one person's version of the events; he choses what he thinks is probably the closest to what really happened and goes with it, which keeps the pace of the book quick, but I felt like I was not quite getting the full story. Still, it's a great read. After reading a lot of Napoleonic War novels in which the British always beat up the Spanish and French, it's refreshing to read a story in which things don't go quite so well for the British.

We have been spoiled by the wonderful tales of O'Brian and Forester into believing that the early 18th century sea captains and their crews were all good guys. Here is the real world of those times with naval officers discharged in peacetime with no support, ship owners betrayed, drunken selfish and infighting captains, and mutinous crews. Despite this it is a tale of leadership quite appropriately published by the Naval Institute. Middies would certainly learn more from this real world epic of sea battles and shipwreck about leadership than they would from stories about Captains Aubrey, Hornblower or even Cook.