Richard Walter

Anson's Voyage Round the World (Dodo Press) Richard Walter

Admiral George Anson, 1st Baron Anson PC RN (1697-1762) was a British admiral and a wealthy aristocrat, noted for his circumnavigation of the globe and his role overseeing the Royal Navy during the Seven Years' War. He entered the navy in 1712, and by rapid steps became lieutenant in 1716, commander in 1722, and post-captain in 1724. While Great Britain was at war with Spain in 1740, he led a squadron of eight ships on a mission to disrupt or capture Spain's Pacific possessions. Returning to England in 1744 by way of China and thus completing a circumnavigation, the voyage was notable for the capture of an Acapulco galleon but also horrific losses to disease with only 188 of the original 1854 surviving. Anson's chaplain, Richard Walter, recorded the circumnavigation, which he included in A Voyage Round the World published in 1748. It is, "written in brief, perspicuous terms", wrote Thomas Carlyle in his History of Friedrich II, "a real poem in its kind, or romance all fact; one of the pleasantest little books in the world's library at this time".