British Legends: The Life and Legacy of Sir Francis Drake
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Narrated by:
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Colin Fluxman
About this listen
- Includes a contemporary account of Drake's voyage around the world.
- Discusses the legends and controversies surrounding Drake's piracy and adventures.
"There must be a beginning of any great matter, but the continuing unto the end, until it be thoroughly finished, yields the true glory." (Sir Francis Drake)
The life of Sir Francis Drake, or, more precisely, the tale of it, is one of those prime examples that history is written by the winners. Drake was the most famous sailor of the Elizabethan era, and he has long been considered a hero by the English. His successes against the Spanish as a captain and a privateer were legendary, and Drake was celebrated for fighting the Queen's enemies, sinking their ships, and capturing the treasure that would otherwise be used to finance attacks on England. Drake vigorously pursued every mission given to him by Elizabeth I and brought all his skill, experience, and training to bear against her enemies. He was recognized at court for his valor, praised in story and song, and remembered for the kind of personality and esprit de corps that the English have long desired and celebrated in their military heroes.
While that might have summarized Sir Francis Drake's life from an English perspective, that's not at all how the Spanish remember El Draque (The Dragon), the 16th century's most notorious pirate. Referred to as "the main cause of wars" in one 1592 letter to the Spanish king, Phillip II, Drake harassed Spanish ships in several oceans and was so despised by the Spanish that Phillip II placed the equivalent of a $7 million bounty on his head. This should come as no surprise, given that Spanish accounts tell of a captain who attacked and boarded Spanish merchant ships to steal their treasure and who made off with it in the kind of haughty and dramatic ways that have become standard fare in pirate lore.
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- By Xmeromotu on 07-11-22
By: Keith Thomson
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Black Flags, Blue Waters
- The Epic History of America's Most Notorious Pirates
- By: Eric Jay Dolin
- Narrated by: Paul Brion
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Set against the backdrop of the Age of Exploration, Black Flags, Blue Waters reveals the dramatic and surprising history of American piracy's "Golden Age" when lawless pirates plied the coastal waters of North America and beyond. Best-selling author Eric Jay Dolin illustrates how American colonists at first supported these outrageous pirates in an early display of solidarity against the Crown, and then violently opposed them. Upending popular misconceptions and cartoonish stereotypes, Dolin provides this wholly original account of these seafaring outlaws.
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Solid read, BUT...
- By K ODell on 07-17-19
By: Eric Jay Dolin
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Mayflower
- A Story of Courage, Community, and War
- By: Nathaniel Philbrick
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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From the perilous ocean crossing to the shared bounty of the first Thanksgiving, the Pilgrim settlement of New England has become enshrined as our most sacred national myth. Yet, as best-selling author Nathaniel Philbrick reveals in his spellbinding new book, the true story of the Pilgrims is much more than the well-known tale of piety and sacrifice; it is a 55-year epic that is at once tragic, heroic, exhilarating, and profound.
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Fascinating book about a little-understood time
- By John M on 02-04-07
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A General History of the Pyrates
- From Their First Rise and Settlement in the Island of Providence, to the Present Time
- By: Daniel Defoe
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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This work was published in 1724, under the pseudonym Captain Charles Johnson, by an unknown British author, usually assumed to be Daniel Defoe. This work is the prime source for the biographies of many well-known pirates of that era and shaped the popular notions about pirates of the day. Included are Blackbeard, Black Bart, Jolly Roger, Anne Bonny (aka Anne Bonn), Edward Teach, Henry Avery, Mary Read, and many more.
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Horrendous Waste of John Lee’s Time and Ours
- By Blake on 01-22-20
By: Daniel Defoe
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The Republic of Pirates
- Being the True and Surprising Story of the Caribbean Pirates and the Man Who Brought Them Down
- By: Colin Woodard
- Narrated by: Lewis Grenville
- Length: 13 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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In the early 18th century, the Pirate Republic was home to some of the great pirate captains, including Blackbeard, "Black Sam" Bellamy, and Charles Vane. Along with their fellow pirates - former sailors, indentured servants, and runaway slaves - this "Flying Gang" established a crude but distinctive democracy in the Bahamas, carving out their own zone of freedom in which servants were free, Blacks could be equal citizens, and leaders were chosen or deposed by a vote.
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Audible is better
- By CaptainRavick on 01-19-16
By: Colin Woodard
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The Pilgrim Chronicles: An Eyewitness History of the Pilgrims and the Founding of Plymouth Colony
- By: Rod Gragg
- Narrated by: Micah Lee
- Length: 7 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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All Americans are familiar with the story of the Pilgrims--persecuted for their religion in the Old World, they crossed the ocean to settle in a wild and dangerous land. But for most of us, the story ends after their brutal first winter at Plymouth, with a supposedly peaceful encounter with the Native Americans and a happy Thanksgiving.
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I loved it!
- By tiffany on 12-22-15
By: Rod Gragg
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Under the Black Flag
- The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates
- By: David Cordingly
- Narrated by: Don Hagen
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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For this rousing, revisionist history, the former head of exhibitions at England's National Maritime Museum has combed original documents and records to produce a most authoritative and definitive account of piracy's "Golden Age." As he explodes many accepted myths (i.e. "walking the plank" is pure fiction), Cordingly replaces them with a truth that is more complex and often bloodier.
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Lacks Nuance
- By Joel Langenfeld on 07-02-15
By: David Cordingly
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Conquistador Voices
- The Spanish Conquest of the Americas as Recounted Largely by the Participants, Volume I
- By: Kevin H. Siepel
- Narrated by: Kevin H Siepel
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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The Spanish Conquest: What really happened? If you like to use your drive time for education by audiobook, consider this audiobook for widening and deepening your view of an event you studied briefly in school - the Spanish conquest of the Americas. Conquistador Voices, neither glamorizes nor condemns the conquistadors. Somewhat in the manner of a modern film documentary, it treats the so-called conquest as an historical event that’s worth learning about for its own sake, with most of the moralizing left to the listener.
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The Misleading Title is the Most Forgivable Part..
- By Tyler Sanders on 12-19-22
By: Kevin H. Siepel
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The Pirate Queen
- By: Susan Ronald
- Narrated by: Josephine Bailey
- Length: 13 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Dubbed the "pirate queen" by the Vatican and Spain's Philip II, Elizabeth I was feared and admired by her enemies. Extravagant, whimsical, and hot-tempered, Elizabeth was the epitome of power. Her visionary accomplishments were made possible by her daring merchants, gifted rapscallion adventurers, astronomer philosophers, and her stalwart Privy Council, including Sir William Cecil, Sir Francis Walsingham, and Sir Nicholas Bacon.
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Too lilttle about Elizabeth!
- By Eunice on 12-20-07
By: Susan Ronald
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A Commonwealth of Thieves
- The Improbable Birth of Australia
- By: Thomas Keneally
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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It was 1786 when Arthur Phillip, an ambitious captain in the Royal Navy, was assigned the formidable task of organizing an expedition to Australia in order to establish a penal colony. With the authority of a renowned historian and the narrative grace of a brilliant novelist, Thomas Keneally offers an insider's perspective into the dramatic saga of the birth of a vibrant society in an unfamiliar land.
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Interesting tidbits, but slow overall
- By Dan on 08-23-07
By: Thomas Keneally
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A Land So Strange
- The Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca
- By: Andres Resendez
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 7 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1528, a mission set out from Spain to colonize Florida. But the expedition went horribly wrong: Delayed by a hurricane, knocked off course by a colossal error of navigation, and ultimately doomed by a disastrous decision to separate the men from their ships, the mission quickly became a desperate journey of survival. Of the 300 men who had embarked on the journey, only four survived - three Spaniards and an African slave.
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A worthwhile listen
- By Blake on 07-10-13
By: Andres Resendez
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River of Darkness
- Francisco Orellana's Legendary Voyage of Death and Discovery Down the Amazon
- By: Buddy Levy
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1541, the brutal conquistador Gonzalo Pizarro and his well-born lieutenant Francisco Orellana set off from Quito in search of La Canela, South America's rumored Land of Cinnamon, and the fabled El Dorado, "the golden man". Driving an enormous retinue of mercenaries, enslaved natives, horses, hunting dogs, and other animals across the Andes, they watched their proud expedition begin to disintegrate even before they descended into the nightmarish jungle, following the course of a powerful river.
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Amazing!
- By Sammi on 02-17-18
By: Buddy Levy
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The Shipwreck That Saved Jamestown
- The Sea Venture Castaways and the Fate of America
- By: Lorri Glover, Daniel Smith
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
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The English had long dreamed of colonizing America, especially after Sir Francis Drake brought home Spanish treasure and dramatic tales from his raids in the Caribbean. Ambitions of finding gold and planting a New World colony seemed within reach when, in 1606, Thomas Smythe extended overseas trade with the launch of the Virginia Company. But from the beginning the American enterprise was a disaster.
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Great !
- By Cheryl on 05-02-10
By: Lorri Glover, and others