THE SECRET VOYAGE OF FRANCIS DRAKE 1577-1580.
Vancouver & Toronto: Douglas & McIntyre. 2003. First Edition Thus (& 1st printing). Octavo, original boards, dust jacket. 400 pp., Maps, Illustrations, Bibliography, Notes, Index. This is the first expanded and publically available edition, it was previously issued in different format as "SIR FRANCIS DRAKE'S Secret Voyage To the Northwest Coast of America, AD 1579" under the author's own imprint of Sir Francis Drake Publications, Salt Spring Island, BC, in 2001. That edition was a mere 149 pages, so we assume that this edition is greatly expanded from that work. A Very Good Clean copy in a nice dust jacket. Item #314379
¶ When Sir Francis Drake returned to England in 1580, many questions concerning his momentous voyage were left unanswered - his journals were impounded and his men were forbidden, on pain of death, to divulge where they had been. Drawing on newly uncovered evidence, geographer and maritime historian Samuel Bawlf masterfully reconstructs Francis Drake's historic round-the-world expedition, exploring the drama surrounding the voyage and offering intriguing insights into life at sea in the sixteenth century. But it is Bawlf's assertion of Drake's whereabouts in the summer of 1579 that gives the book even greater originality: from an intensive study of maps of the period, Bawlf shows with certainty that Drake sailed all the way to Alaska - much farther than anyone has heretofore imagined - thereby rewriting the history of exploration in North America.
Price (CAD): $45.00