História trágico-marítima

The História trágico-marítima (trans. Tragic History of the Sea) is a famous 18th-century collection of narrative accounts of the travails and wrecks of several Portuguese ships, principally carracks (naus) on the India run between 1552 to 1602, and the oft-harrowing stories of their survivors.

The accounts (some of which had been previously published as pamphlets) were collected by historian Bernardo Gomes de Brito and published in two volumes in 1735 and 1736. It is said that Brito had enough material to publish five volumes, but ended up only publishing two. In the course of the 18th century, several collections of other shipwreck accounts were published, alleging themselves to be the 'third volume' of Brito's work. Some of these latter accounts were appended to Brito's original in a multi-volume 1904-1909 edition of the História prepared by Gabriel Pereira.

The original title of Brito's collection was História trágico-marítima, em que se escrevem chronologicamente os naufragios que tiveram as naus de Portugal, depois que se poz em exercício a Navegação da Índia., published in Lisbon by the Off. da Congregação do Oratório, volume I in 1735 (4° de XVI-479 pag.) and volume II in 1736 (4° de XVI-538 pag.)

Brito's original 1735-36 work contains twelve accounts, in chronological order, from 1552 to 1602.

The História trágico-marítima was a popular success in Portugal, and numerous abridgements and summaries modernizing the language were produced for Portuguese schools. English translations of some of these accounts were published by Charles Ralph Boxer (1959, 1968).

...
Wikipedia