In June 1593, a ghostly ship drifted into an Irish harbour. Only 16 crewmen remained alive, and the deck was littered with the dead.
This was the melancholy homecoming of the ship Desire, one of a fleet of five that had left England two years before, fuelled by dreams of Spanish gold and the glory of exploring the globe. The expedition's captain, thirty-one-year-old Thomas Cavendish, had been lost in the South Atlantic and was presumed dead: a victim of disease, mutiny, and an excess of ambition.
Yet just five years earlier, in 1588, things had been very different. Cavendish had returned aboard the Desire triumphant from circumnavigating the world in record time, having taken a Manila galleon and secured the largest haul of treasure ever to fall into English hands. Cavendish sailed the Desire to Greenwich and paid homage to Queen Elizabeth I, staging a lavish banquet for her on board.
In The Queen's Pirate, Iain Gately traces the career of this remarkable Elizabethan mariner from spectacular triumphs to great betrayals and an ill-fated final voyage. Gately expertly steers readers through Cavendish's tempestuous life, as he crafts the first biography of an unjustly neglected Elizabethan hero.
| ISBN: | 9781035917556 |
| Publication date: | 5th November 2026 |
| Author: | Iain Gately |
| Publisher: | Apollo an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing (UK) |
| Format: | Other Product |
| Pagination: | 384 pages |
| Primary Genre | Biographies & Autobiographies |
| Other Genres: |
In June 1593, a ghostly ship drifted into an Irish harbour. Only 16 crewmen remained alive, and the deck was littered with the dead.This was the melancholy homecoming of the ship Desire, one of a fleet of five that had left England two years before, fuelled by dreams of Spanish gold and the glory of exploring the globe.
The Queen's Pirate features in the following genres: Biographies & Autobiographies, History, Naval forces and warfare, Biography: general, Biography, Literature and Literary studies, Biography: general, Society and Social Sciences, Warfare and defence, Military forces and sectors, Naval forces and warfare
Other Product. £22.50, down from the £25.00 cover price. Pre-order. 5th November 2026.
The Queen's Pirate was written by Iain Gately and published by Apollo an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing (UK)
The Queen's Pirate has 384 pages
£22.50, reduced from £25.00. Pre-order. 5th November 2026.
