Ships category: 1007 books

Lightkeeping on the St. Lawrence outlines the history of lightkeeping in the St. Lawrence River and Gulf from its emergence in 1803 until automation replaced the last lightkeeper in 1988. Fog, hidden reefs, rocks, and sandbars have made the waters of the river and gulf among the most treacherous in...

On December 22, 1853, a new steamship left New York on its maiden voyage. The San Francisco—perhaps the finest ocean-going vessel of its time—had been chartered by the U.S. Government to transport the U.S. Army’s Third Artillery Regiment to the Pacific Coast. Two days out, the ship ran into...

Created in 1973 with the amalgamation of the Caledonian Steam Packet Co. and David MacBrayne, CalMac’s black hulls and white toppings have been a common sight on the Clyde estuary, sailing to the Western Isles and on numerous short crossings in the western Highlands. So widely does the company operate...

Warship 2017 is devoted to the design, development and service history of the world's combat ships. Featuring a broad range of articles from a select panel of distinguished international contributors, this latest volume combines original research, new book reviews, warship notes, an image gallery...

From the 1840s, with the development of steamships, there was a demand for day trips to the coast. Towns along the Thames and on the Essex and Kent coasts benefitted from the influx of trippers. Numerous companies, such as the Eagle and Belle steamers and the New Medway Steam Packet Co., catered for...

On 8 August 1974, the world’s last seagoing paddle steamer was sold by her owners for the princely sum of a pound. The PS Waverley has now spent more of her career in preservation than in service with the British Transport Commission and Caledonian MacBrayne. She is still a common sight on the Clyde,...

From Gigha in the south to Lewis in the north and St Kilda in the west, Alistair Deayton covers the piers of the Hebrides and other outlying islands in the companion volume to his West Highland Piers. Since the 1810s, steamers have provided a valuable service to the communities of the Western Isles....

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...

By choosing to concentrate upon discovering what forest resources were available to the French navy during the ancien régime and what use it was able to make of them, Mr. Bamford has not only provided the first monograph on that subject in the English language, but has gone far toward explaining...

Harwich lifeboat station operates two modern, state-of-the-art lifeboats,operated by 28 volunteers and two full-time members of staff. The lifeboats work the coasts of Essex and Suffolk, as well as the rivers Stour, Orwell and Deben, the Walton Backwaters and the Thames estuary south of Harwich. Nicholas...

In The Origins of the Lost Fleet of the Mongol Empire, Randall Sasaki provides a starting point for understanding the technology of the failed Mongol invasion of Japan in 1281 CE, as well as the history of shipbuilding in East Asia. He has created a timber category database, analyzed methods of joinery,...

Shipping is a pillar of global trade, with 90 per cent of the world’s trade in goods and raw materials carried by ship. Despite the economic benefits this delivers, maritime operations can be dangerous, and when accidents occur the consequences are serious. Consequential outcomes from hazards at...

A Mersey ferry was recorded in the Domesday Book, and for around a thousand years, they have plied between Birkenhead and Wallasey on the Wirral and Liverpool. The sail and man-powered craft gave way to steam ferries in 1815. In this book, Ian Collard tells the story of the Mersey ferries, concentrating...

Formed on Merseyside in 1913, Coast Lines grew from a small fleet of sixteen coastal ships operating in the Irish Sea to the world’s largest coastal fleet. At the time, over 4 million tons of shipping sailed from the Mersey on coastal voyages. At its height, the company included Powell, Bacon &...