Leapfrog Press Maritime History

The young Charles Darwin was like a young Indiana Jones. For five years in his mid-twenties, he sailed on the BEAGLE around the world, exploring jungles, climbing mountains, trekking across deserts. With every new landfall, he had new adventures: he rode through bandit country, was thrown into jail by revolutionaries, took part in an armed raid with marines, survived two earthquakes, hunted and fished. He suffered the terrible cold and rain of Tierra del Fuego, the merciless heat of the Australian outback and the inner pangs of heartbreak. He also made the discoveries that finally led him to formulate his theory of Natural Selection as the driving force of evolution. The five-year voyage of the BEAGLE was the basis for all Darwin's later work; but it also turned him from a friendly idler into the greatest scientist of his century.

"History as you long to read it, charismatic, concise and unputdownable." Horatio Clare

A RIVETING ACCOUNT OF THE VOYAGE OF THE MAYFLOWER that looks at the reality behind the mythical status and the journey that created the New World. Most of the voyagers of that famed 1620 crossing of the Atlantic were not in fact religious pilgrims but people intent on forging a better life for themselves in the virgin territory of America's east coast. 130 hardy souls were confined in a space no bigger than a tennis court, braving the "Northern Crossing' without any firm idea of what awaited them in the New World.

A rollicking rapid read, written so compellingly that the reader will feel the swell of the sea on every page. Kevin Jackson brings the stories of these great adventurers and mariners to life, all packed into just 128 pages.

Published to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the fabled crossing of the “Pilgrim Fathers” from Plymouth, England. The pilgrims, who held Puritan Calvinist religious beliefs, sighted land at Cape Cod and first anchored in Provincetown Harbour on November 11/12 1620. And from there went on to found the Plymouth Colony.

The fourth title in Kevin Jackson’s magnificent maritime history series, Nelson’s Victory, explores the remarkable achievements of the British naval and national hero Horatio Nelson and his victory and death at The Battle of Trafalgar. As with other titles in the series, Jackson demolishes the myths that abound about Nelson’s nature and reveals the real man behind hyperbole. Nelson was a smooth operator who demonstrated considerable political instincts and worked his way up the naval ladder with ruthless ambition.

"History as you long to read it, charismatic, concise and unputdownable." HORATIO CLARE

For more than four centuries, Sir Francis Drake has been world-famous for his feats as a master mariner – the captain who “singed the King of Spain’s beard” with his daredevil attack on the fleet at Cadiz, and who led the British Navy to victory against the Spanish Armada in 1588.

But Drake’s exploits in his earlier years, though less well known, are even more remarkable. Born into a poor, obscure family, he worked his way rapidly up in the maritime world to his first captaincy. Before long, he was the most successful of all English pirates, admired by his countrymen, hated and feared by the Spanish.

Queen Elizabeth and her ministers saw the potential in this rough-mannered but enterprising young man, and gave him their blessing for the first British venture into the Pacific Ocean. This success of this voyage, which lasted for three years, exceeded their wildest hopes. Not only did Drake come home with a vast treasure of captured gold, silver and jewels; he became the first man ever to circumnavigate the globe in a single mission, and bring most of his crew home alive and well. Soon after his triumphant return, Elizabeth knighted this newly rich adventurer, and gave her blessing to his acts of pillage. It was a gesture that made war with Spain inevitable. And Drake’s part in the coming war changed the course of world history.

SIR FRANCIS DRAKE: THE QUEEN’S PIRATE tells the extraordinary story of Drake’s early years and his journey around the world on his famous ship, the Golden Hind.