Disaster on the Spanish Main presents a thoroughly researched and gripping account of the 1741–42 West Indies expedition from its roots in the commercial-imperial conflicts between Britain and Spain to its eventual unraveling in death and despair.

Disaster on the Spanish Main unveils and illuminates an overlooked yet remarkable episode of European and American military history and a land-sea venture to seize control of the Spanish West Indies that ended in ghastly failure. Thirty-four years before the Battles of Lexington and Concord, a significant force of American soldiers deployed overseas for the first time in history. Colonial volunteers, 4,000 strong, joined 9,000 British soldiers and 15,000 British sailors in a bold amphibious campaign against the key port of Cartagena de Indias. From its first chapter, Disaster on the Spanish Main reveals a virtually unknown adventure, engrosses with the escalating conflict, and leaves the reader with an appreciation for the struggles and sacrifices of the 13,000 soldiers, sailors, and marines who died trying to conquer part of Spain's New World empire. Disaster on the Spanish Main breaks new ground on the West Indies expedition in style, scope, and perspective and uncovers the largely untold American side of the story.

Forced to accompany their parents on their honeymoon in Spain, new stepsisters Amy and Felix find the animosity between them escalating, especially when Felix's boasting about family wealth to Grace, the mysterious world traveler, results in the kidnapping of the girls and their younger brother.

The Hillsborough River, which runs through the big population area of Tampa, is a popular site for leisure activities. Kevin McCarthy, author of more than 20 books about Florida, guides the reader and boater from the source of the Hillsborough River in the Green Swamp west of Tampa, through Hillsborough River State Park, then through the city of Tampa, to its mouth at the Gulf of Mexico. Both a history and a guidebook, "Hillsborough River Guidebook" features information on the wildlife and culture along the river as well as travel tips, with recommendations of places to eat and stay. Includes photographs and maps. The other books available in the series are "Suwannee River Guidebook" and "St. Johns River Guidebook."

From the international bestselling author of KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON and THE LOST CITY OF Z, a mesmerising story of shipwreck, mutiny and murder, culminating in a court martial that reveals a shocking truth. On 28th January 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty’s ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon, the Wager was wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia. The crew, marooned for months and facing starvation, built the flimsy craft and sailed for more than a hundred days, traversing 2,500 miles of storm-wracked seas. They were greeted as heroes. Then, six months later, another, even more decrepit, craft landed on the coast of Chile. This boat contained just three castaways and they had a very different story to tell. The thirty sailors who landed in Brazil were not heroes – they were mutineers. The first group responded with counter-charges of their own, of a tyrannical and murderous captain and his henchmen. While stranded on the island the crew had fallen into anarchy, with warring factions fighting for dominion over the barren wilderness. As accusations of treachery and murder flew, the Admiralty convened a court martial to determine who was telling the truth. The stakes were life-and-death—for whomever the court found guilty could hang.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1974.

The armada's contribution to the tenacious survival of Spanish hegemony.