Neptune’s Fortune

A rousing slice of narrative history, and a rip-roaring tale from bow to stern – Daniel Brooks * Telegraph *Spanish galleons groaning with gold, piratical English sea captains, swashbuckling treasure hunters with Hemingway beards, war, greed and adventure … Neptune’s Fortune is exactly the sort of book I want to read – Robbie Millen * The Times *A wonderful book, full of heroism, greed, piracy, sunken treasure, and adventure on the high seas. A wild, incredible story from beginning to end, with a central character straight out of Hemingway, it’s even more remarkable because it’s true – Eric Schlosser, New York Times bestselling author of ‘Command and Control’ and ‘Fast Food Nation’For more than three centuries the Spanish galleon San José remained a mystery, lost in battle and vanished in the pitiless deep ocean. Whoever found this shipwreck and its legendary treasure—among the many searching for it—would find their name etched in history. How fortunate for us that one man’s obsession with the San José led to its discovery, and that master storyteller Julian Sancton has chronicled this triumph. Neptune’s Fortune is a real-life drama, a maritime riddle, a swashbuckling adventure, and above all, a riveting tale – Susan Casey, New York Times bestselling author of ‘The Underworld’Sancton is a masterful storyteller, and he has struck gold—pun intended—with Neptune’s Fortune. Through extraordinary research across three continents and with a journalist’s eye for the telling detail, he has penned a rollicking tale of buccaneers, shady treasure hunters and sea battles both past and present. Readers are in for a rare treat – Scott Anderson, New York Times bestselling author of ‘Lawrence in Arabia’Of all the prizes slumbering upon the world’s seabeds, no shipwreck has stirred more mystery, intrigue, or controversy than the galleon San Jose. In these briskly-paced pages, Julian Sancton takes us from moldering Spanish archives to the murk of the Caribbean to tell the thrilling story of how one quixotic, eccentric, and thoroughly obsessed sleuth stubbornly defied the odds to locate this most legendary of underwater bounties. Neptune’s Fortune is about treasure and the subculture of treasure seekers, but more importantly, it reminds us of the deeper and more satisfying riches that come embedded within a splendid historical tale that’s been researched meticulously and told exceptionally well – Hampton Sides, New York Times bestselling author of ‘The Wide Wide Sea’Roaring with excitement, Neptune’s Fortune is a deeply reported adventure, a study in obsession, and a thoroughly engrossing read. Sancton writes in the fine tradition of great narrative nonfiction that transports the reader into private worlds and into marvellous larger-than-life characters. – Susan Orlean, bestselling author of ‘The Orchid Thief’ and ‘The Library Book’A brilliantly written, utterly engrossing book that moves with great panache between the 18th century and the present, between the spectacle and horror of the Spanish Main and its modern-day equivalent. If I were to choose one book to exemplify the fascination and folly of treasure-hunting, this would be it. A wonderful read – David Gibbins, author of ‘A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks’

Julian Sancton read History at Harvard and is a senior features editor at Departures magazine, where he writes about culture and travel. His work has appeared in Vanity Fair, Esquire, The New Yorker, Wired, and Playboy, among other publications. Madhouse at the End of the Earth was both a New York Times bestseller and a Sunday Times bestseller.