Ayala: The Coast of Spanish California($22.95Value)

Description

AYALA is a book about maritime exploration and the founding of modern California. In 1775, the Spanish naval officer Juan de Ayala commanded the packet ship San Carlos through the narrow strait now known as the Golden Gate, becoming the first European Naval Officer to enter and survey San Francisco Bay. His voyage marked the culmination of more than two centuries of Spanish maritime exploration along the Pacific Coast and helped shape the future of California. Drawing from Spanish archival material, Bancroft collections, maritime records, and newly translated primary sources, AYALA presents a maritime history of California from the age of Cabrillo and the Manila Galleons to the expeditions of Portolá and missions of Junipero Serra. Rather than focusing solely on missions and settlements ashore, this study examines the ships, sailors, supply routes, and naval expeditions that made Spain’s presence in California possible. The book explores the hazardous coastal voyages that linked San Blas, Baja California, Monterey, and the remote northern frontier of Alta California. English privateers, Pacific exploration, Spanish naval strategy, and the growing fear of foreign encroachment all shaped the final great Spanish exploratory expeditions of the eighteenth century. Included is the complete log of the San Carlos voyage of 1775, translated into English and presented in full for the first time, offering readers a rare firsthand account of one of the defining maritime expeditions in the history of California. Written from a maritime perspective and grounded in primary-source research, AYALA offers a detailed and accessible account of the explorers, navigators, soldiers, missionaries, and seamen who carried Spain’s Pacific empire to the shores of California. About the Author Bradley Angle is a maritime historian, navigation instructor at California Maritime Academy, and former United States Coast Guard member. He is the author of Juan Sebastian Elcano and Shipmates: Before the Mast , and coauthor of Troubled Waters: The Legacy of Coast Guard Hero BM3 Travis R. Obendorf . His research focuses on maritime exploration, California history, and the early Spanish Pacific voyages. Angle has worked extensively with both archival materials and literature relating to early California.