The Last Voyage of Columbus: Being the Epic Tale of the Great Captain's Fourth Expedition, Including Accounts of Swordfight, Mutiny, Shipwreck, Gold, War, Hurricane, and Discovery [Kindle Edition]

Martin Dugard (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

The Year is 1500. Christopher Columbus, stripped of his title Admiral of the Ocean Seas, waits in chains in a Caribbean prison built under his orders, looking out at the colony that he founded, nurtured, and ruled for eight years. Less than a decade after discovering the New World, he has fallen into disgrace, accused by the royal court of being a liar, a secret Jew, and a foreigner who sought to steal the riches of the New World for himself. The tall, freckled explorer with the aquiline nose, whose flaming red hair long ago turned gray, passes his days in prayer and rumination, trying to ignore the waterfront gallows that are all too visible from his cell. And he plots for one great escape, one last voyage to the ends of the earth, one final chance to prove himself. What follows is one of history's most epic-and forgotten-adventures. Columbus himself would later claim that his fourth voyage was his greatest. It was without doubt his most treacherous. Of the four ships he led into the unknown, none returned. Columbus would face the worst storms a European explorer had ever encountered. He would battle to survive amid mutiny, war, and a shipwreck that left him stranded on a desert isle for almost a year. On his tail were his enemies, sent from Europe to track him down. In front of him: the unknown. Martin Dugard's thrilling account of this final voyage brings Columbus to life as never before-adventurer, businessman, father, lover, tyrant, and hero.

Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 428 KB
• Print Length: 320 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company (June 1, 2005)
• Sold by: Hachette Book Group
• Language: English
• ASIN: B000FCK6XO
• Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #57,395 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  • #6 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( C ) > Columbus, Christopher
  • #22 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > History > World > Expeditions & Discoveries
  • #68 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Biographies & Memoirs > Specific Groups > Adventurers & Explorers

More About the Author

New York Times bestselling author Martin Dugard specializes in chronicling the drive of great men to realize their potential. His new book, To Be A Runner, completes that arc. This inspiring and informational series of essays is written from the viewpoint of Dugard's forty years as a distance runner. For the past six years he has also put that knowledge to good use by spending his afternoons as the head cross-country and track coach at JSerra High School in San Juan Capistrano, California. His teams have qualified for the California State Championships four years in a row, and his girls team won the state title in 2010.

Dugard's previous books include The Murder of King Tut (co-written with bestselling author James Patterson), which saw Dugard travel to Egypt to unravel the centuries-old mystery of who murdered Tutankhamen, Egypt 's legendary boy king; The Training Ground (Little, Brown, 2008), the riveting saga of America's great Civil War generals during the Mexican War, when they were scared young lieutenants first learning the ways of war; The Last Voyage of Columbus (Little, Brown; 2005), Chasing Lance (Little, Brown; 2005), Into Africa: The Epic Adventures of Stanley and Livingstone (Doubleday, 2003), Farther Than Any Man: The Rise and Fall of Captain James Cook (Pocket Books, 2001), Knockdown (Pocket Books, 1999), and Surviving the Toughest Race on Earth (McGraw-Hill, 1998).

He has also co-written three books with Mark Burnett, creator of Survivor and The Apprentice.

In addition, Dugard recently wrote and produced Warrior, a coming-of-age film based around the sport of lacrosse. Warrior stars Kellan Lutz and Ashley Greene (of Twilight fame) and will be in theaters May 2011.

It's also worth noting that History Channel's recent summer hit, Expedition Africa, is based on Dugard's Into Africa. He served as the show's historical consultant and designed the route the explorers would follow across Tanzania.

An adventurer himself, Dugard regularly immerses himself in his research to understand characters and their motivations better. To better understand Columbus he traveled through Spain , the Caribbean, Central America, and sailed from Genoa to Spain aboard a tall ship in the manner of the great navigator. He followed Henry Morton Stanley's path across Tanzania while researching Into Africa (managing to get thrown into an African prison in the process), and swam in the tiger shark-infested waters of Hawaii 's Kealakekua Bay to recreate Captain James Cook's death for Farther Than Any Man.

On the more personal side of adventure, Dugard competed in the Raid Gauloises endurance race three times, ran with the bulls in Pamplona on two occasions, and flew around the world at twice the speed of sound aboard an Air France Concorde. The time of 31 hours and 28 minutes set a world record for global circumnavigation. Dugard's magazine writing has appeared in Esquire, Outside, Sports Illustrated, and GQ, among others.

Martin Dugard lives in Orange County, California, with his wife and three sons.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good read., August 28, 2009

By 

T. W. Ohlson "TWO" (Florida, United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Last Voyage of Columbus: Being the Epic Tale of the Great Captain's Fourth Expedition, Including Accounts of Swordfight, Mutiny, Shipwreck, Gold, War, Hurricane, and Discovery (Kindle Edition)

Dugard has a very easy and entertaining style. The information can be a little muddled at times (just look at the book's full title as an example), but overall a good read.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lasting Story of Exploration and Adventure, May 29, 2010

By 

Jason Golomb (Northern Virginia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Last Voyage of Columbus: Being the Epic Tale of the Great Captain's Fourth Expedition, Including Accounts of Swordfight, Mutiny, Shipwreck, Gold, War, Hurricane, and Discovery (Kindle Edition)

I've read Martin Dugard before. His "Into Africa" traces Henry Morgan Stanley's search for British Explorer David Livingstone deep in the African jungle. "Farther Than Any Man" follows the career of Explorer James Cook. He wrote "The Murder of King Tut" with perennial fiction bestselling author James Patterson. While "Tut" is a bit of a mess and misses whatever target at which it's aiming, "Into Africa" is a thrilling ride, that's exhilarating to read and fulfilling to finish. "Farther Than Any Man" is somewhere in between...both enlightening and a little hard to follow at times. "The Last Voyage of Columbus" is both a historical survey, and at times a detailed narrative. It's not as strong as "Into Africa", and yet I'm finding it more lasting than the Cook bio.

The book outlines Columbus' first three expeditions to the New World, and about half way through delves deeply into his last journey. Columbus' final journey, in the very early 1500s, is successful with the benefit of historical hindsight. Columbus cruises the Central America isthumus and the northern peak of the South American continent. Columbus is still seeking his western water-based route to India, and as Dugard points out, comes tantilizingly close - less than 100 miles from the Pacific as he makes landfall on modern-day Panama. Columbus finds gold, but he's never able to fully bask in his ultimate validation of finding the New World. His expedition of about 150 men barely survives hurricanes, horrific wind storms, angry natives, a mutinous crew, and aggressively jealous Spaniards doing all they can to discredit the great captain.

Columbus comes across as a bit of a sad old man. He's clearly past his prime having failed at leading the Spanish colony at Santo Domingo in Hispanola (modern day Dominican Republic). Dugard portrays King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella's final approval of a fourth journey as a way to get rid of, and appease, the annoying and persistent explorer.

I'd rank this book three stars without a second thought if it weren't for the fact that I read it very quickly and, a few days after I've put it down, have found myself thinking about Columbus' horrid hardships, fierce loyalties he was able to instill, and polarizing effect he had on two different continents. Both of these indicate that the book was probably more than "good" at only 3 starts. If there was a "half" rating, I'd go with 3 and a half, but instead I'll just have to give Dugard and Columbus the benefit of the doubt.