The Lost Fleet: The Discovery of a Sunken Armada from the Golden Age of Piracy – Venezuela's 1678 French Naval Disaster and the Rise of Caribbean Buccaneers

by Barry Clifford, Kenneth Kinkor

On January 2, 1678, a fleet of French ships sank off the Venezuelan coast. This proved disastrous for French naval power in the region, and sparked the rise of a golden age of piracy. Tracing the lives of fabled pirates like the Chevalier de Grammont, Nikolaas Van Hoorn, Thomas Paine, and Jean Comte d'Estrées, The Lost Fleet portrays a dark age, when the outcasts of European society formed a democracy of buccaneers, settling on a string of islands off the African coast. From there, the pirates haunted the world's oceans, wreaking havoc on the settlements along the Spanish mainland and -- often enlisted by French and English governments -- sacking ships, ports, and coastal towns. More than three hundred years later, writer, explorer, and deep-sea diver Barry Clifford follows the pirates' destructive wake back to Venezuela. With the help of a lost map, drawn by the captain of the lost French fleet, Clifford locates the site of the disaster and wreckage of the once-mighty armada.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Pirates, Research, Travel, Nautical, 17th Century

304 pages, Paperback

First published July 23, 2002

Reviews

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story entwines the modern-day search for the eponymous "Lost Fleet" with the late-1600's history of the real pirates involved in both that crash and other plundering escapades. Both are pretty riveting, though I confess I enjoyed "Return to Treasure Island and the Search for Captain Kidd" more - probably because Kidd is just more inherently interesting, and that wreck was a lot harder (more dramatic) to find. And there was a whale.

[Альберто Лорэдо · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book, interesting mix of history of piracy in the late XVII century and present times underwater archeology challenges related to the loss of a French fleet from Louis XIV reign in front of current Venezuelan coast.

[Aria · Rating 2 out of 5]

I saw a review complaining the book is more about piracy than about recovery diving. That's strange, b/c I dnf'd this book due to it's being more about diving & the divers than about the pirates & ships that were being recovered.

[Ross · Rating 3 out of 5]

Absolutely No Photos, maps or drawings…

Read the title. With all the filming for the BBC, not a single frame could be spared for the book! There was more about personal and business relationships than the site! I guess this is how you make a book length document out of very little to show! Perhaps this is why there’s no photo’s since it would be of mostly reef, fish and divers… I’ve been a diver since 1974 and a few maps and diagrams with pictures would have added something useful to the underwater archeology and to the book! This tome should have been billed as a history book!

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting history of the early age of piracy in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico from the late 1600's to the early 1700's. The work is set on the Las Aves, an atoll off the coast of Venezuela where the wrecks of a French battle fleet from the early 1600's was found. The author describes what was found, and the problems his team encountered with the Venezuelan government in getting the permits and approvals needed to work in their territorial waters. Definitely an interesting change from my usual deep space or high tech reading material.

[David Webster · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Fascinating Story!

Barry Clifford is a successful maritime explorer known all over the world. He is also an extremely gifted writer who gives the reader a very close look at nine fascinating shipwrecks that occurred during the Golden Age of Piracy. If you like nautical adventure, you will LOVE this outstanding book!

[Kim Bloom · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful and fascinating read.

This book brings order and perspective to the lore of the Caribbean, making fact out of fiction, preserving the awe and audacity, anchoring the indecency and independence of history's pirates.

[Sally Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Could be better

No pictures. Footnotes don't link. Modern-day chapters are repetitive and boring. The history of the pirates is very interesting and I learned a lot. 2.5 stars for the modern, 5 for the pirates.

[Alysia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy to read, full of interesting facts about the reality of pirates, shipwrecks, underwater archeology and the problems that can occur with them all.

The author is a little too in love with himself for me to want to read his other works.

[wally walter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting, hearing about all the back biting

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Barry Clifford is an underwater archaeologist who has become very interested in pirates. A few years ago he and his crew discovered and excavated the Whydah, a pirate ship found off the coast of Cape Cod. This is the story of the exploration of an armada of French ships that went down on a coral reef off Venezuela in 1678. BBC and the Discovery Channel were to film a documentary of their expedition, but some permits didn’t come through in time and there was fear that the whole trip would end in failure. The book alternates chapters about Clifford’s trip to the wrecks with stories about the French fleet, and the pirate ships that went down as well. (I skipped the historical parts and just read the archaeology chapters because I had three or four books on hold all arrive for me at the same time.) There are now three authenticated wrecks of pirate ships and Clifford has discovered them all.

[Redsteve · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read. Like Clifford's Expedition Whydah, this book goes back and forth between the history of the disaster and buccaneer actions in the late 17th Century and the modern surveying operations of the wrecked fleet off the coast of Venezuela. Technically, a lot of the history doesn't have much to do with the wrecked French fleet, but deals with a number of buccaneers' (de Graff, Paine, Van Hoorn and De Grammont) careers following the disaster. However, it is nice to read an account of the pirates/privateers that fell between the more well-known periods of the era of the great buccaneer fleets (mid-17th Cl.) and the "Golden Age of Piracy" (early 18th Century). As in Expedition Whydah, Clifford does have a few axes to grind when he writes of his business partners. Overall, I'd call this a 3.5.

[Francine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book in an attempt to diversify my reading, which consists mostly of novels, and mysteries.
To my surprise, as this is not mentioned anywhere in the blurbs, the French armada in question was on its way to Curacao to kick the Dutch out of this important and well located island. My diversification was awesome!
The Armada had sunk on reefs in Los Aves, off the coast of Venezuela, and exploring the reefs meant dealing with the Venezuelan government just before the election of Chavez. His description of Caracas (...a well-baked piecrust... beneath it... a scene reminiscent of Calcutta) and his contact with government entities show an interesting view.

The book goes back and forth between the exploration of the reefs and the wrecks of the Armada, to the history of piratry in the Caribbean in the late 1600s.

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this book you learn a lot about piracy. This crew is dedicated to find a sunken armada in the coast of Venezuela, and through out their own expedition to do so, the author teaches us a lot of pirates on the golden age of bucaneering in the Caribean. They run into all kinds of trouble, from bad weather during their dives, to government obstacles. I had a hard time dealing with Charles Brewer's involvement in the project, as well as his personality and way of thinking. He's way to arrogant and annoying for me. Other than that it's a good book.

And if you want to learn more about pirates I strongly recommend - Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates by David Cordingly.

[Mrs.Lady · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unfortunately less than 25% of the book was about the expedition. It was more a history of piracy so that made for slow reading.

[Richie Moran]

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