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  “as melancholy”: Leo Heaps, Log of the Centurion: Based on the Original Papers of Captain Philip Saumarez on Board HMS Centurion, Lord Anson’s Flagship During His Circumnavigation, 1740–44, 175.

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  “She burnt”: Millechamp, A Narrative of Commodore Anson’s Voyage into the Great South Sea and Round the World, NMM-JOD/36.

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  “like rotten sheep”: The Gentleman’s Magazine, June 1743.

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  “I should”: Letter from Anson to Lord Hardwicke, June 14, 1744, BL-ADD MSS.

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  “We had the”: The Universal Spectator, Aug. 25 and Sept. 1, 1744.

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  “It is almost”: Millechamp, A Narrative of Commodore Anson’s Voyage into the Great South Sea and Round the World, NMM-JOD/36.

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  “Unless we wish”: Somerville, Commodore Anson’s Voyage into the South Seas and Around the World, 183–84.

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  “the meanest sailor”: The Universal Spectator, Aug. 25 and Sept. 1, 1744.

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  “endeavour to”: Millechamp, A Narrative of Commodore Anson’s Voyage into the Great South Sea and Round the World, NMM-JOD/36.

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  Now, while sailing: My description of the chase of the galleon and the subsequent battle scene is drawn largely from the numerous firsthand accounts and reports of those who were present. For more information, see Anson’s letters and dispatches; Heaps’s Log of the Centurion; Keppel’s The Life of Augustus, Viscount Keppel, Admiral of the White, and First Lord of the Admiralty in 1782–3, vol. 1; Millechamp’s A Narrative of Commodore Anson’s Voyage into the Great South Sea and Round the World; Thomas’s A True and Impartial Journal of a Voyage to the South-Seas; Walter’s A Voyage Round the World; and Williams’s Documents Relating to Anson’s Voyage Round the World. My research also benefited from several excellent works of history, including Somerville’s Commodore Anson’s Voyage into the South Seas and Around the World and Williams’s The Prize of All the Oceans.

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  “the English”: Intelligence report sent to the governor of Manila, printed in Williams, ed., Documents Relating to Anson’s Voyage Round the World, 207.

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  “Gentlemen, and”: Somerville, Commodore Anson’s Voyage into the South Seas and Around the World, 217.

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  “spirit in”: Ibid.

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  “an act of”: Williams, The Prize of All the Oceans, 161.

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  “Exercising our”: Walter, A Voyage Round the World, 400.

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  “Keeping in”: Ibid., 401.

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  “All hands”: Journal of Saumarez, printed in Williams, ed., Documents Relating to Anson’s Voyage Round the World, 197.

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  “Our ship”: Millechamp, A Narrative of Commodore Anson’s Voyage into the Great South Sea and Round the World, NMM-JOD/36.

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  “face death”: Keppel, The Life of Augustus, Viscount Keppel, Admiral of the White, and First Lord of the Admiralty in 1782–3, vol. 1, 115.

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  “Nothing was”: Millechamp, A Narrative of Commodore Anson’s Voyage into the Great South Sea and Round the World, NMM-JOD/36.

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  “very well contrived”: Thomas, A True and Impartial Journal of a Voyage to the South-Seas, 289.

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  “At the very”: Quoted in Brian Lavery, Anson’s Navy: Building a Fleet for Empire, 1744–1763, 102

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  “being frightened”: Thomas, A True and Impartial Journal of a Voyage to the South-Seas, 282–83.

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  “It is too”: Juan de la Concepción, Historia General de Philipinas, excerpted in Williams, ed., Documents Relating to Anson’s Voyage Round the World, 218.

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  “promiscuously covered”: Heaps, Log of the Centurion, 224.

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  “humane disposition”: The Universal Spectator, Aug. 25 and Sept. 1, 1744.

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  grisly failures: In November 1739, at the very outset of the war, Admiral Edward Vernon and his forces captured the Spanish settlement of Portobelo, in what is now Panama, but this victory was soon followed by a string of calamitous defeats.

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  “GREAT BRITAIN’S”: Daily Advertiser, July 5, 1744.

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  A share of: For information on estimates of the shares of prize money awarded to the seamen and officers, including Anson, see Williams, The Prize of All the Oceans.

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  “It was the”: Rodger, The Command of the Ocean: A Naval History of Britain, 1649–1815, 239.

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  sea ballad: This song about Anson celebrates not just his taking of the galleon but also his capture of another wealthy prize four years later.

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  “The wagon”: Firth, Naval Songs and Ballads, 196.

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  CHAPTER 23

  “What could”: Report from Cheap to Lindsey, Feb. 26, 1744, JS.

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  “five poor”: Campbell, The Sequel to Bulkeley and Cummins’s “Voyage to the South Seas,” 55.

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  “departed this”: Ibid., 63.

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  “scraped a hole”: Byron, The Narrative of the Honourable John Byron, 150–51.

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  “We durst”: Campbell, The Sequel to Bulkeley and Cummins’s “Voyage to the South Seas,” 58.

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  “Thus, in”: Byron, The Narrative of the Honourable John Byron, 167.

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  “gave way”: Ibid., 158.

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  “There ran”: Ibid., 172.

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  “hardly appeared”: Ibid., 169.

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  “I could compare”: Ibid., 169–70.

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  “They made a”: Ibid., 176.

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  “considerable service”: Campbell, The Sequel to Bulkeley and Cummins’s “Voyage to the South Seas,” 77.

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  “We all”: Ibid., 70.

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  “We thought”: Ibid., 78.

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  “I was now”: Report from Cheap to Richard Lindsey, Feb. 26, 1744, JS.

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  “The officers of”: Carlyle, Anecdotes and Characters of the Times, 100.

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  “condemned hole”: Byron, The Narrative of the Honourable John Byron, 214.

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  “There was”: Ibid.

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  “The soldiers”: Ibid.

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  “Every day”: Report from Cheap to Lindsey, Feb. 26, 1744, JS.

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  “my two faithful”: Quoted in Layman, The Wager Disaster, 218.

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  “obliged to defraud”: Byron, The Narrative of the Honourable John Byron, 262.

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  “great and monstrous”: Defoe, A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain, 135.

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  “Having been”: Byron, The Narrative of the Honourable John Byron, 263.

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  “With what surprise”: Ibid., 264.

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  “For what”: Quoted in Layman, The Wager Disaster, 217.

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  “I flatter”: Ibid., 216.

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  “I have nothing”: Bulkeley and Cummins, A Voyage to the South Seas, 170.

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  the press: For more information on the publishing trade during this era, see Bob Clarke, From Grub Street to Fleet Street: An Illustrated History of English Newspapers to 1899; Robert Darnton, The Literary Underground of the Old Regime; Pat Rogers, The Poet and the Publisher: The Case of Alexander Pope, Esq., of Twickenham versus Edmund Curll, Bookseller in Grub Street; and Howard William Troyer, Ned Ward of Grub Street: A Study of Sub-Literary London in the Eighteenth Century.

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  “bound them”: Caledonian Mercury, February 6, 1744.

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  “often mysterious”: Carlyle, Anecdotes and Characters of the Times, 100.

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  “could not be”: Byron, The Narrative of the Honourable John Byron, x.

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  called “egotism”: Ibid., ix.

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  “The law is”: Janet Malcolm, The Crime of Sheila McGough, 3.

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  CHAPTER 24

  “Hanged”: This and other quotes in the scene come from Bulkeley and Cummins, A Voyage to the South Seas, 169–70.

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  British naval law: For more information on naval law and courts-martial, see Byrn, Crime and Punishment in the Royal Navy; Markus Eder, Crime and Punishment in the Royal Navy of the Seven Years’ War, 1755–1763; David Hannay, Naval Courts Martial; John M’Arthur, Principles and Practice of Naval and Military Courts Martial; Rodger, Articles of War; and Rodger, The Wooden World.

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  “They wanted”: Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim, 18.

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  “mutinous assemblies”: For this and other quotes of regulations, see Rodger, Articles of War, 13–19.

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  “contrived to convey”: Byrn, Crime and Punishment in the Royal Navy, 55.

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  mutiny on HMS Bounty: There are enough books on this mutiny to fill a vast library. I relied especially on Caroline Alexander’s excellent account, The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty. For more information, also see Edward Christian and William Bligh, The Bounty Mutiny.

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  One of them: There are diverging accounts of what the condemned men said before the execution.

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  “Brother seamen”: Quoted in Christian and Bligh, The Bounty Mutiny, 128.

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  “vain notions”: Bulkeley and Cummins, A Voyage to the South Seas, 170.

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  to be hanged: A captain or other commissioned officer sentenced to death typically had the choice of whether to be hanged or shot.

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  “fall by the”: Bulkeley and Cummins, A Voyage to the South Seas, 171.

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  CHAPTER 25

  “strike the mind”: Frederick Marryat, Frank Mildmay, or, The Naval Officer, 93.

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  “do his utmost”: The Trial of the Honourable Admiral John Byng, at a Court Martial, As Taken by Mr. Charles Fearne, Judge-Advocate of His Majesty’s Fleet, 298.

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  “kill an admiral”: Voltaire, and David Wootton, Candide and Related Texts, 59.

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  “you so justly”: Cheap to Anson, Dec. 12, 1745, printed in Layman, The Wager Disaster, 217-18.

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  “I always”: Bulkeley and Cummins, A Voyage to the South Seas, 171.

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  “Do you charge”: This and other quoted court-martial testimony come from TNA-ADM 1/5288.

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  “all of that”: Italics added for emphasis.

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  “honourably acquitted”: Bulkeley and Cummins, A Voyage to the South Seas, 172–73.

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  “escape clause”: Williams, The Prize of All the Oceans, 101.

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  “an uncomfortable whiff”: From my interview with Rear Admiral Layman.

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  “surrounded with”: Quoted in Gaudi, The War of Jenkins’ Ear, 277.

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  Deluded Britons!: London Daily Post, July 6, 1744.

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  the war itself: For more background on the origins of the war, see Chapman, Disaster on the Spanish Main; Gaudi, The War of Jenkins’ Ear; and David Olusoga, Black and British: A Forgotten History.

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  “the fable of”: Quoted in Justin McCarthy, A History of the Four Georges and of William IV, 185.

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  “expunged from”: Olusoga, Black and British, 25.

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  “empire of the”: Quoted in P. J. Marshall, The Oxford History of the British Empire: The Eighteenth Century, 5.

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  “Disturbances and”: Quoted in Rose, “The Anatomy of Mutiny,” Armed Forces & Society, 565.

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  “the mutiny that”: Williams, The Prize of All the Oceans, 101.

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  CHAPTER 26

  the very last castaways: In a surprising twist, Morris and the two other castaways discovered an unexpected person onboard the ship with them: Midshipman Alexander Campbell, who was returning to England after being left behind by Cheap.

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  “the greatest act”: Morris, A Narrative of the Dangers and Distresses Which Befel Isaac Morris, and Seven More of the Crew, Belonging to the Wager Store-Ship, Which Attended Commodore Anson, in His Voyage to the South Sea, 10.

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  “a wild desolate”: Ibid.

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