Ships category: 1007 books

The Richard Perkins warship identification albums form one of the most detailed studies ever undertaken of the changes to the appearance of Royal Navy ships. However, it is a unique hand-drawn manuscript artefact in the care of the National Maritime Museum, so despite its value it is rarely seen by...

2008 was a magical year for Cunard. For the first time, the line had three Queens in service: Queen Elizabeth 2, Queen Mary 2 and Queen Victoria. Queen Elizabeth 2 retired during the year, sailing for Dubai on 11 November, while Queen Mary 2 had reached her fifth anniversary as the largest ocean liner...

Unlike in the rest of the United Kingdom the pier in Scotland has always seen as functional rather than as a pleasure pier. This was certainly the case on the West Highland Coast. During the nineteenth century and well into the twentieth century shipping was the only way to transport goods and people...

Built in 1949 in Southampton for the Southampton, Isle of Wight & South of England Royal Mail Steam Packet Co., MV Balmoral operated in their Red Funnel fleet for twenty years. Moving to Bristol, she became the last vessel purchased by P&A Campbell for the pleasure steamer services down the...

Gradually evolving from the masted steam frigates of the mid-nineteenth century, the first modern cruiser is not easy to define, but for the sake of this book the starting point is taken to be Iris and Mercury of 1875. They were the RN's first steel-built warships; were designed primarily to be steamed...

Sometime around 1446 A.D., Cardinal Prospero Colonna commissioned engineer Battista Alberti to raise two immense Roman vessels from the bottom of the lago di Nemi, just south of Rome. By that time, local fishermen had been fouling their nets and occasionally recovering stray objects from the sunken...

One of the first works to look inside the powerhouse of Titanic-era ships—the manpower that generated the horsepower, including a list of the ship's "black gang" and their fatesDown in the fiery belly of the luxury liners of the Titanic era, a world away from the first-class dining rooms...

Cunard’s advertising boasts of having ‘The Most Famous Ocean Liners in the World’. It is no idle claim since the company has given us some of the best-known and best-loved ships that ever sailed, their distinctive livery making them instantly recognisable and admired all over the world. As Cunard...

This book is a detailed comparative study of the decorative work – figurehead, topside ornamentation and stern gallery design – carried by the ships of the major maritime states of Europe in the zenith of the sailing era. It covers both warships and the most prestigious merchant ships, the East...

We are accustomed to think of England in terms of Shakespeare's 'precious stone set in a silver sea', safe behind its watery ramparts with its naval strength resisting all invaders. To the English of an earlier period – from the 8th to the 11th centuries – such a notion would have seemed ridiculous....

Covering the whole of the UK, from Northern Scotland to the South Coast. The loss of many ships and men is detailed in Trawler Disasters. Fishing is Britain's deadliest industry - and many thousands have died in the pursuit of cod, herring, haddock, mackerel and a host of other fish so that we can...

A historian and sailor describes how 16th-century voyages from England to the Americas were madeWhen a ship set out for the Americas in the 16th century, the crew faced a long voyage and a host of difficulties along the way. Ship-building, navigation, and provisioning were all crucial to the vessel...

Electric propulsion for boats was developed in the early 19th century and—despite the advent of the internal combustion engine—continued with the perfecting of the modern turbo-electric ship. Sustainable and hybrid technologies, pioneered in small inland watercraft toward the end of the 20th century,...

The true story of how a family brought a wooden cargo ship back into the age of sail. Cecilia bought the first ship, a Thames barge, for family vacations—there were six children. Dominick bought the successor, a Baltic Trader, and then found this would be his career. Twenty years elapsed between...