Ships category: 1007 books

Jim Lynne is idly playing darts in Liverpool when his brother, Ted, calls him over to a table to ask a question about the ship that he is working on. It seems the ship, enigmatically named the 290, is not the cargo ship that people are saying it is. Whatever its purpose, it is certainly built for...

By far the most controversial sinking during the First World War was that of the Lusitania. As opposed to the loss of the Titanic several years earlier, which could be attributed to nature, the destruction of the passenger-liner Lusitania came at the hands of a German U-boat, one of many which infested...

In the last months of the American Civil War, the upper Texas coast became a hive of blockade running. Though Texas was often considered an isolated backwater in the conflict, the Union's pervasive and systematic seizure of Southern ports left Galveston as one of the only strongholds of foreign imports...

The CSS Shenandoah fired the last shot of the Civil War and was the only Confederate warship to circumnavigate the globe. But what was Captain James Waddell’s true relationship with his Yankee prisoner Lillias Nichols and how did it determine the ship’s final destination? Without orders, Waddell...

During WW1 the North Sea became the principal battleground for the navies of Britain and Germany. This book explains in chronological order the major encounters between Kaiser Wilhelm II’s High Seas Fleet and the Royal Navy. It also includes other important operations such as mine-laying and sweeping,...

A monumental retelling of world history through the lens of maritime enterprise, revealing in breathtaking depth how people first came into contact with one another by ocean and river, lake and stream, and how goods, languages, religions, and entire cultures spread across and along the world’s waterways,...

The elegant, ultra-modern SS Koombana arrived in Western Australia in March 1909; after only three years of service in the North West of Australia, the ship and her entire complement disappeared in a late-summer cyclone off the Pilbara coast in 1912. All 156 lives were lost but the wreck was never...

In the 19th century, the Stevenson engineers pioneered marvellous lighthouses around the coasts of Scotland – lighthouses which inspire with their architectural elegance, and speak of compassion for sailors and fishermen risking their lives in these notoriously dangerous waters. But what was it...

If you mention the subject of pleasure steamers on the rivers Thames and Medway, you can be certain that most people will remember with fond nostalgia the well-loved steamers Royal Daffodil, Royal Sovereign and Queen of the Channel. Even now well over forty years since their untimely demise, their...

Pleasure steamer cruises along the scenic North Wales coast from Liverpool disappeared some fifty years ago. The outstanding beauty of North Wales and in particular the Menai Straits and Anglesey, was in its day, one of the most outstanding and scenic areas of the UK for enjoying the simple pleasure...

An intriguing delve into the questionable circumstances around and behind the greatest maiden voyage of all time. Join the author as he explores the evidence and asks us to "follow the money!"

In an era when immigration was at its peak, the Fabre Line offered the only transatlantic route to southern New England. One of its most important ports was in Providence, Rhode Island. Nearly eighty-four thousand immigrants were admitted to the country between the years 1911 and 1934. Almost one in...

John Streckfus began his small Acme Company in 1889 with one wooden packet boat, the steamer Verne Swain, out of Rock Island, Illinois, carrying people and goods on the Mississippi River. His business grew, but each year brought competition from the growing railroads. He decided that excursion boats...

A cross between genuine privateers, commissioned to defend a country's colonies and trade, and outright pirates, buccaneers were largely English, French, and Dutch adventurers who plied the waters among the Caribbean Islands and along the coasts of Central America, Venezuela, and Colombia more than...