Empires preserve their power with the stories that they tell, but just as critical are the stories they don’t—the dark silences they impose, the pages they tear out.

Not only had British men and boys been sent to their death, but the war itself had been rooted at least partly in a deception. The merchant captain Robert Jenkins had indeed been attacked by the Spanish, but this had occurred in 1731, eight years before the outbreak of the war. The incident had originally drawn little attention—and was forgotten un

“Below forty degrees latitude, there is no law,” a sailors’ adage went. “Below fifty degrees, there is no God.”

At last, the Gloucester caught up to the Pearl, and its officers revealed why they’d been so wary. Several days earlier, while they had been looking for the squadron, they had detected five men-of-war, one of which had hoisted a broad red pendant, signifying that it was Anson’s flagship. In excitement, the Pearl had raced toward the fleet, but whil

(When ailing seamen were shielded belowdecks from the adverse elements outside, they were said to be “under the weather.”)