Expedition History

The Paragon Expedition is the thrilling story of twins stranded on the moon. The story is inspired by the great explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton. With his courage and prudence he saved 57 people who lost their ship but not their hope.

In 1798, an initial review of France’s naval forces had led Napoleon to conclude his navy could not hope to outfight the power of the Royal Navy, which had been the dominant naval power for centuries, so he was forced to look elsewhere. After months of planning, Napoleon crafted a scheme to attack and conquer Egypt, denying the British easy access to their colonies in India, with the ultimate goal of linking up with the Sultan Tipoo in India itself and defeating the British in the field there.

By the mid-17th century, the existence of a land in the south referred to as Terra Australis was generally known and understood by the Europeans, and incrementally, its shores were observed and mapped. Van Diemen’s Land, an island off the south coast of Australia now called Tasmania, was identified in 1642 by Dutch mariner Abel Tasman, and a few months later, the intrepid Dutchman would add New Zealand to the map of the known world.

A land of almost 3 million square miles has lain since time immemorial on the southern flank of the planet, so isolated that it remained entirely outside of European knowledge until 1770. However, the first human footprints on this vast territory were felt 70,000 years earlier. The history of the indigenous inhabitants of Australia is a complex. For generations after the arrival of whites in Australia, the Aboriginal people were disregarded and marginalized, largely because they offered little in the way of a labor resource, and they occupied land required for European settlement.

В начале 80-х годов XIX века в верховьях Амура были обнаружены богатые золотые россыпи. Принятый в 1865 году закон, разрешавший частный золотой промысел, породил настоящую "золотую лихорадку" на Амуре - тысячи людей бросились на поиски благородного металла, мечтая разбогатеть. Это привело к созданию так называемых, старательских республик. Самой знаменитой из них стала Желтугинская республика или Амурская Калифорния. Раньше всех на берега Желтуги слетелись беглые каторжники, которые скрывались неподалеку. Затем в эти края прибыли китайцы, называвшие золотоносную реку Мохэ.

The largest structure ever built was not made by humans, but by incredibly tiny organisms known as coral polyps. Over the course of tens of thousands of years, these small organisms have put together a collection of nearly 3,000 reefs, known as the Great Barrier Reef, which form a collective stretching across 130,000 square miles. Scientists have counted about 1,500 different fish species that use the reef, and it's estimated that 1.5 million birds use the site.

This short history audiobook features the story of Ernest Shackleton. He was among the last of a group of intrepid men from the Golden Age of Discovery in the Victorian era. He sought honor for England and himself in embarking on a dangerous journey to lead a team of men to cross the Antarctic continent.

Situated about 25 miles off the Tanzanian coast, Zanzibar, with its sultans and spices, merchants and mosques, dhows and doorways of richly carved timber, has captured the imagination of travelers and writers for hundreds of years. It has long evoked a romantic mystique, calling up images of an island paradise in the warm waters of the Indian Ocean. Its gleaming Muslim Swahili town, built of white coralline limestone, can trace approximately 1,000 years of maritime trading.

Captain Robert Scott’s final journey to the South Pole has been called one of history’s greatest tales of adventure. And his journals are among the most dramatic and moving documents in the English language. Sensitively read by David Horovitch, this new audio adaptation starts in 1910 as Scott's ship, the Terra Nova, sets sail from New Zealand. Then in vivid, conversational style details the dangerous journey through the ice to Antarctica, the winter hibernation in 24-hour darkness, and the final journey to and from the Pole.

This narrative about the creation and early growth of the United Fruit Company comes across like an adventure novel. The author whisks the listener to Central America to experience the trials, tribulations, and triumphs of a group of visionaries who carved a commercial empire out of virtually uninhabited Central American tropical jungles. These American businessmen and the people who worked for them were the early pioneers. They overcame tropical disease, financial problems, weather, and other obstacles by innovation and sheer grit.

From the late eighth century to somewhere around the middle of the 11th century, the history of Europe was dominated by the people who have become known as the Vikings. The Vikings were among the first global explorers who established territory that stretched from North America in the west to Constantinople in the east, and from the frigid wastes of the Arctic in the north to the warm shores of the Mediterranean Sea in the south.

In 1271 a young Italian merchant named Marco Polo embarked on a groundbreaking expedition from Venice, through the Middle East and Central Asia to China. His extraordinary reports of his experiences introduced medieval Europe to an exotic new world of emperors and concubines, amazing cities, huge armies, unusual spices and cuisine, and imperial riches. Marco Polo also revealed the wonders of Xanadu, the summer capital of Mongol emperor Kublai Khan.

On the first of September 1785, with night coming on and the weather deteriorating, the crew of the ship Faithful Steward sailed toward Delaware's notorious False Cape. In the summer of 1785, a group of Irish migrants took to the Atlantic to escape the abuse and persecution of the ruling classes at home. They sought a new life in the United States, a place "where the banner of freedom waved proudly" and "every good was possessed."

En agosto de 1897, el joven comandante belga Adrien de Gerlache partió para una expedición de tres años a bordo del barco Bélgica con sueños de gloria. Su destino era el extremo inexplorado de la Tierra: el continente helado de la Antártida.

Figura indissociável da conquista da América, Hernán Cortez guarda muitas ambiguidades. Representa, ao mesmo tempo, o extermínio de um império indígena vasto e populoso e a origem do povo mestiço que constitui o México. A campanha liderada por Cortez no mundo asteca entraria para a História da cultura ocidental como um dos maiores símbolos do contato entre culturas e o consequente choque de valores de sociedades distintas. E foi a partir desse encontro que um novo mundo, aos poucos, se ergueu e outra sociedade, sincrética, nem europeia e nem indígena, começou a ser formada.

There is so much about Texas that few people know. Who knows about the lawless Horrell Brothers, who feuded for years with "Pink" Higgins. What is the oldest town in Texas? Learn about the Jaybird-Woodpecker War, or about the Texas Enchanted Rock. Then there was the fence-cutting war along with the usual Texas favorites, the Alamo, Cattleman Charles Goodnight, Texas' First Navy, and the San Elizario Salt War. If that not enough, you can learn more about Pirate Jean Lafitte.

Discover Sir Ranulph Twistelton-Wykham-Fiennes's personal expedition to trace his extraordinary family through the twists and turns of history. From Charlemagne - himself a direct ancestor of the author - to the count who very nearly persuaded William the Conqueror to retreat at Hastings, many members of this unique clan have lived close to the nerve centre of the ruler of their day.

Part historical nonfiction, part big-think book, Challenge Us is the first ever work that encompasses both the history of crowdfunding and challenge prizes, and their implications for the future. While there have been audiobooks in the space that have alluded to crowdfunding and prize competitions in their backdrops, none have unearthed such extensive underpinnings of the practices, or analyzed them in such detail as to provide insights into a rather underreported tool for societal progress.

Captain James Cook FRS was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the Royal Navy who is most well-known for his three explorations to the Pacific Ocean, especially to Australia, between 1768 and 1779. Prior to finishing three trips to the Pacific, he drew precise maps of Newfoundland and made the first documented European encounter with the eastern coast of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands, and the first noted circumnavigation of New Zealand.

The most seminal event of the last millennium might also be its most controversial. As schoolchildren have been taught for over 500 years, "In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue." Like Christopher Columbus before him, Hernán Cortés was lionized for his successes for centuries without questioning his tactics or motives, while indigenous views of the man have been overwhelmingly negative for the consequences his conquests had. Just about the only thing everyone agrees upon is that Cortés had a profound impact on the history of North America.