A History in Ship Models by Brian Lavery The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich houses the largest collection of scale ship models in the world, many of which are official, contemporary artefacts made by the craftsmen of the navy or the shipbuilders themselves and ranging from the mid-seventeenth century to the present day. As such, they represent a three-dimensional archive...

From the Fourteenth Century to the Present by Jon Wise From the first recorded mention of British ships protecting of fishing vessels in the late fourteenth century through to recent controversies over the change in emphasis to border patrols and overseas deployments, the story of the Royal Navy’s ‘Cinderella Fleet’ involves many dramatic incidents. Until now, however, there has never...

Experiences of Merchant Seamen, 1939-1945 BY BERNARD EDWARDS The war years 1939 – 1945 were the most perilous in the long history of the British Merchant Navy. The figures speak for themselves. With 2,535 ships sunk and 36,749 merchant seamen lost, the proportional casualty rate was higher than any branch of the Armed Forces except for Bomber Command. The danger...

British, American and Other Naval Motor Boats at War 1914 – 1920 by Steve R Dunn On the outbreak of war in 1914, the Royal Navy found it required more small craft than it possessed to carry out minesweeping, anti-submarine patrols and coastal defence. This led to the formation of an auxiliary force of civilian vessels, including motor pleasure boats...

by Kenneth L Privratsky At the outbreak of the Second World War, Britain, desperately short of merchant shipping, turned to the Norwegians who agreed to loan several hundred of its modern cargo and tanker ships. In early 1940 when Hitler invaded Norway, both the British and Germans rushed to seize the remainder of the fleet. King Haakon VII and his...

Tenacity and Sacrifice by William Smith Within hours of the outbreak of the Second World War, Winston Churchill took up office as First Lord of the Admiralty. The same day the liner Athenia was torpedoed in the Atlantic in the first U-boat attack of the war. Churchill quickly recognised that Britain’s survival depended on countering the U-boat threat and the...

The story of a Small Steamship BY HENRY CLEARY From the heart of Rosyth naval base in 1978 five volunteers set out on VIC 56, an elderly steamer snatched from a scrapyard fate. With only a basic radio and a compass made usable by one of the crew, they set out down the North Sea. Turned away by some ports...

by John Evans Twenty years have passed since the Rochdale Canal reopened following a restoration scheme that faced almost impossible hurdles. One of three commercial waterways across the Pennines, the canal links the industrial North West and North East, flowing through mill towns, beneath dramatic bridges and traverses spectacular hilly scenery. Its 91 locks present a strenuous challenge for boaters,...

by Jeremy Black The key importance of naval success in Britain’s rise to being the leading power in the world was a hard-won process, one that linked fighting effectiveness to national support. Covering both these elements, Jeremy Black takes us from the successful Dutch invasion of 1688 to the long sequence of British successes in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic...

by Jimmy Cornell and Ivan Cornell Jimmy Cornell, highly experienced sailor and bestselling author, has teamed up with his son Ivan to produce this fully revised third edition of World Voyage Planner. Based on their shared experience of several circumnavigations, this book deals with all essential elements that contribute to the successful completion of a long-distance voyage. Designed to be...

Two Navies and the Fight for Freedom by Michael Ellis, Gustaf von Hofsten and Derek Law This is a history of navies in the Baltic Sea and its approaches, from the Skaggerak to the Gulfs of Bothnia and Finland. Throughout history, navies have inherently supported civil society and the prosperity that international trade brings. Two navies in particular have played...

BY JOHN WILLIAM PERRY Although the author’s graduation from his pre-sea nautical HMS Conway was both expected and anticipated, to be honoured at the same time with the Queen’s Gold Medal was certainly not, coming as it did as a deeply humbling surprise. Acceptance into the P&O Steam Navigation Company as a Cadet was far less of a given, as...

by Perrin Towler Known as the ‘Yachtsman’s Bible’, Reeds provides all the information required to navigate Atlantic coastal waters around the whole of the UK, Ireland, Channel Islands and the entire European coastline from the tip of Denmark right down to Gibraltar, Northern Morocco, the Azores and Madeira. Having celebrated its 90th anniversary last year, the 2023 Almanac continues the...

A Life at Sea by Simon Quail Can you survive the storms of youth? This lively and entertaining memoir reveals that you can. Life will get better. This authentic tale reveals how a young deck officer survived all that the wild ocean could throw at him. He survived challenges physically, emotionally, and spiritually. He became a Master Mariner and a...

Scotland’s Adventure on the Rivers of Burma by Paul Strachan The Irrawaddy Flotilla Company, known in colonial Burma as the ‘Fabulous Flotilla’, was the world’s largest privately-owned fleet of ships. It was an entirely Scottish enterprise with nearly all its investors, management, and ship’s officers drawn from Scotland. Over 1,200 ships were ordered mainly from Clyde yards, and each year...

In War & Peace by R O Neish This new book reveals the part played by the eight Bustler Class Rescue Tugs built at the Henry Robb Shipyard during the Second World War and will shed more light on the almost-forgotten role played by this country’s mariners. The men and women rescued under the most trying of times and dreadful...

The Life of a Marine Engineer by J W Richardson If anyone has ever wondered what happens in the engine room when the captain on the bridge rings ‘Full Ahead’ on the telegraph, then this book will enlighten the reader. This is a story of one man’s life at sea, from his beginnings as a lowly cadet to his qualification...

by Adrian Sweeney In 935, the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company fleet consisted of seventeen vessels. It would be no exaggeration to say that it was a very mixed fleet indeed, consisting of steamers built by the Company, steamers bought second-hand, coal burners, oil burners, steam turbine engines, steam reciprocating engines, passenger vessels and cargo-only ships. It was certainly...

The anatomy and evolution of the Olympic Class by Simon Mills The Olympic Class liners were conceived as the largest, grandest ships ever to set sail. Of the three ships built, the first only lost the record for being the largest because she was beaten by the second, and they were both beaten by the third. The class was meant...

The Most Highly Decorated Midshipman 1939–1945 by Jeremy Stoke By any standards, Mick Stoke’s experiences in the Royal Navy during the Second World War were remarkable. Aged nineteen, he was ‘Mentioned in Despatches’ and awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his courage during incessant bombing during the Siege of Tobruk. He survived multiple torpedo attacks, firstly serving on the cruiser...

The Autobiography of Admiral Andrew Cunningham Admiral Andrew Cunningham, best remembered for his courageous leadership in the Mediterranean in the Second World War, is often rated as our finest naval commander after Nelson, and indeed a bust of the Admiral was unveiled in Trafalgar Square close by his predecessor in 1967 by the Duke of Edinburgh. It was during the...

The Ross Expedition 1839-1843 by John Knight This under-documented expedition was a pivotal moment in the annals of polar exploration and was the starting point, in historical terms, of revealing the great unknown continent of Antarctica. It was the first time in nearly 70 years since Captain James Cook had circumnavigated Antarctica, that a Royal Naval voyage of discovery had...

by Christopher Nicholson Rock Lighthouses of Britain & Ireland is a new edition of the classic work on the subject but with some of the most famous Irish rock lighthouses included. The text has been updated to include the modern technology used by the lighthouse authorities and all the historical advances made over the centuries at British and Irish rock...