Sovereigns of the Sea : The Quest to Build the Perfect Renaissance Battleship

by Konstam, Angus

• ISBN13: 9780470116678
• ISBN10: 0470116676
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-08-11
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

The Ultimate WarshipHer keel measured 126 feet, and she stretched to 160 feet overall. Her 46.5-foot beam sacrificed speed for the sake of stability, and the 19 feetof water she drew denied her access to smaller ports. Some saw herenormous size and ungainly proportions as serious drawbacks, butthe 102 heavy bronze cannon that bristled from her flanks guaranteedthat this black-hulled, ornately decorated monster would live up toher name: Sovereign of the Seas. The Dutch sailors who faced her inbattle called her by another name, "The Golden Devil."This immensely powerful floating fortress was the culmination of morethan two hundred years of competition among the kingdoms of Europeto create the perfect marriage between guns and ships. Their relentlessquest for maritime supremacy had produced a seemingly endlesssuccession of grandiose flagships, from Henry V's Grace a Dieu to Sweden's ill-fated Vasa. Emerging nation-states had invested vast portions of theirtreasuries, kings had vied as much for prestige as for power, andthousands of hapless seamen had perished in pursuit of this goal.Sovereigns of the Sea is a gripping tale of an arms race that created and ruined empires, changed the map of the world, and led Europe out of the Renaissance and into the modern age.

Author Biography

Angus Konstam is a widely published authorwho has written several books on piracy,including Blackbeard: America's Most NotoriousPirate, The History of Pirates, and Piracy: The Complete History. A former naval officer and museum professional, he worked as a curator of weapons in the Tower of London and as the chief curator in the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum in Key West, Florida, before becoming a full-time historian and writer. An expert on weapons, shipwrecks, and piracy, he has advised several underwater archaeological groups and appears regularly on both the Discovery and the History channels. He lives in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Table of Contents

Atlas	p. vii
Preface	p. xi
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Introduction: The Quest	p. 1
Europe Comes of Age	p. 9
Knights of the Sea	p. 23
The Shipbuilding Revolution	p. 63
The Great Rivals	p. 83
The Black Art of Gunfounding	p. 123
The Baltic Connection	p. 143
From Carrack to Galleon	p. 171
The Invincible Armada	p. 193
Phoenix from the Ashes	p. 217
Prestige over Practicality	p. 233
Toward the Holy Grail	p. 263
The Sovereign of the Seas	p. 281
Postscript: The Ship of the Line	p. 301
Notes	p. 309
Bibliography	p. 321
Credits	p. 329
Index	p. 330
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.