They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters;
These see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep.
I loved this. A Penguin "Condensed" version of Richard Hakluyt's "Voyages and Discoveries" - first hand accounts from Seamen and explorers from 890 to 1595 - condensed, because the original was 1.5 Million words, this edition is a mere 150,000 or thereabouts. But - at the time it was published it was a big deal, and brought the wider world to English shores, informing the literate of the wonders that lay beyond the horizon. So popular was it in it's time that it was quoted and referred to by Shakespeare, Ben Johnson, Tennyson amongst others.
There are the descriptions of far away places - the mention of dragons that lay in wait to feed upon elephants (crocodiles, presumably), The travellers tales and exaggerations, the speculations - John Hawkins (Slaver & Privateer) speculating on the wildlife of Florida where they landed - (Lions and Unicorns mostly he thought); the merchant tales of those far off tribes that would trade gold for iron, diamonds for glass, furs for cloth, not having our understanding of what was rare and precious, the descriptions of said peoples, the spice isles, the cannibals, the descriptions of possible resources and trade items, the custom of occasionally "abducting" locals to inform the King/Queen first hand of the customs and peoples of their land...
The accounts of Miles Philips, Mercator, Francis Drake, Magellan, Frobisher, all first hand in letters or summaries of their expedition, there's Sebastian Cabot's excellent "Ordinances for the Intended Voyage to Cathay"; which outline the rules of the expedition, the height of good sense; the customs of the expedition, that seaman are paid unto death or return, in the event of death the payment is to their widows or children, the non-proselytizing nature of the expedition, there would be no discussion of their own religion, they would treat all tribes and peoples with gentlemanly behaviour, etc, etc. Which contrasts greatly with the later expeditions, focused on Piracy and Privateering; the plunder and burning and ransoming and even complaining - for example; Frobisher's complaining of the ferocity of the invaded people who clearly had good reason to dislike Europeans, the account of James Lancaster - trapped on a river wherein the villagers had floated pitch and fireworks to ignite their ships...
Outbreaks of dysentery on board the ships, scurvy, the tropical diseases, mosquitos, or in the arctic the black flies, noseeums, mutiny, men set ashore and never recovered, there's John Candish's final voyage, vile misadventure upon misadventures, the letters from a failed expedition that read like the Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner, a cargo of 20, 000 salted penguins turned to slithering worms that infested every deck, piece of furniture, bed, biting and feasting upon the dead, infecting the living who swole up with them in their veins;
I could go on, but this is history written by those who were there.
And the coming together towards the end of all the privateers and slave traders together - John Hawkins, Sir Francis Drake, Frobisher, Sir Walter Raleigh, to with a few ships defeat the entire Spanish Armada making it’s way to conquer England; it reads like a Pirates of the Caribbean spinoff...
Anyways, it hardly needs my recommendation. These are the accounts of men who defeated unsurmountable odds in returning from every voyage, and many made more than one.