Wreckers: Disaster in the Age of Discovery

Brought to you by Penguin.

Wreckers sinks the old narratives of imperialism, revealing the violent, chaotic and improvised reality of empire-building from the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries.

While figures such as Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama and Ferdinand Magellan are celebrated for their maritime achievements - reaching the Americas, India, and circumnavigating the globe - focusing solely on these voyages distorts our perspective on the past. Many explorers ended up as castaways,...