Maritime

The Lurch Into War

In May of 1588, Spain's great Armada set sail, bent on the invasion and conquest of Elizabethan England. Simon Adams re-examines the strategic considerations that underpinned the actions of both England and Spain before and after the Armada.

Elizabethan America: 'God's Own Latitude?'

'In the beginning, America was in the way'. Only slowly did 16th-century Englishmen turn from the chimera of a short-cut to Asia's riches to the vision of precious metals to be mined and colonies planted in the New World.

Mediterranean Corsairs

Mia Rodríguez-Salgado looks at the lives and impact of the Christian and Muslim corsairs on the early modern seas.

Cook, Darwin and Coral Reefs

Our understanding of coral and coral reefs, believes C.M. Yonge, was greatly advanced by the voyages of Cook and Darwin to the South Pacific.

Sir Richard Hawkins: Last of a Dynasty

The epic voyage of this Elizabethan adventurer to Peru and his subsequent capture by its Spanish masters inspired Charles Kingsley's Westward Ho! An article by A.L. Rowse.