This book presents an English translation of the 1639 journal of Dutch naval commander Maarten Harpertszoon Tromp (1598-1653), who led the Dutch fleet in a decisive victory over the Spanish at the Battle of the Downs during that year. A highly detailed introduction, illustrative figures and a bibliography are included.

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.

Explores the resilience of the Dutch Republic in the face of preindustrial climate change during the Little Ice Age.

In 1625, Martin de Arana built six Atlantic warships for the Spanish crown. The author traces the ships from their construction through a decade of service, incorporating a history of Spain's Golden Age. This book was awarded the Spain and America in Quincentennial Year of Discovery prize.

In recent decades historians have studied several new aspects of early modern naval history and placed it in a wider context than traditional studies of naval warfare. This volume brings together 23 studies on naval technology, policy-making and administration, tactics, strategy, operations and warfare on trade. They provide new insights and new ideas for further studies.

The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal has been published annually since 1974. It contains scholarly articles and shorter notes pertaining to objects in the Museum’s seven curatorial departments: Antiquities, Decorative Arts, Drawings, Manuscripts, Paintings, Photographs, and Sculpture and Works of Art. The Journal includes an illustrated checklist of the Museum’s acquisitions for the previous year, a staff listing, and a statement by the Museum’s director outlining the year’s most important activities. Volume 22 of the J. Paul Getty Museum Journal includes articles by John Walsh, Peter Humfrey, Charissa Bremer-David, Carl Grimmm, And Peggy Fogelman.

Warfare at Sea, 1500-1650 is the first truly international study of warfare at sea in this period. Commencing in the late fifteenth century with the introduction of gunpowder in naval warfare and the rapid transformation of maritime trade, Warfare at Sea focuses on the scope and limitations of war before the advent of the big battle fleets from the middle of the seventeenth century. The book also compares the social history of seamen and the early officer corps in several European countries and includes discussion on Spain, Portugal, France, Venice, the Ottoman Empire and the Baltic states.

The fireship was the guided missile of the sailing era. Packed with incendiary (and sometimes explosive) material, it was aimed at its highly inflammable wooden target by volunteers who bailed out into a boat at the last moment. It often missed, but the panic it invariably caused among crews who generally could not swim and had no method of safely abandoning ship did the job for it—the most famous example being the attack off Gravelines in 1588 which led to the rout of the Spanish Armada.Although it was a tactic used in antiquity, its successful revival in the Armada campaign led to the adoption of the fireship as an integral part of the fleet. During the seventeenth century increasingly sophisticated 'fireworks' were designed into purpose-built ships, and an advance doctrine was worked out for their employment. Fireship reveals the full impact of the weapon on naval history, looks at the technology and analyses the reasons for its decline.This is the first history of a potent, much used but little understood weapon.