By Jean Marteilhe
From Baird Maritime:
This is the first of a new series presented by the prolific and high quality Seaforth Publishing. The series, titled Seafarer's Voices, re-presents notable classics of maritime history. This is a good story to start with.
Given that galleys were propelled by galley slaves, for well over two millennia, there must have been many thousands of galley slaves. It is odd, then, that of all these slaves it seems that only one, Jean Marteilhe, wrote a book of his experience.
Marteilhe can't have been the only educated galley slave. Perhaps none of the others survived the experience.
Given the conditions described so vividly by Marteilhe, that would not be surprising. He certainly saw many of his shipmates beaten, starved or neglected to death. Many others were killed in battle.
This book is unlikely to be sold in Roman Catholic bookshops. In this and its sister volume "A Privateer's Voyage Round the World", that church's Jesuit order comes across as the worst imaginable kind of villains.
A fascinating piece of reasonably recent history. Seaforth are to be congratulated for reproducing such an important work.
Ordering Information:
Seaforth Publishing