From the Stone Age to the present day, no technology has had a more profound impact on mankind than watercraft. Boats and ships made possible the settlement and conquest of new worlds. They determined the victors of history-changing wars and aided the spread of new philosophies, technologies and religions. Even today, virtually everything we purchase and consume depends on seaborne trade. 'Ships that Changed History' is more than just a delight for lovers of the sea - it's a virtual history of the world told through the boats and ships that influenced how and where people lived, the ideas they exchanged and how they won and lost the battles that set the course of later generations and millennia. Beautifully illustrated with art and photographs, it is a guide to how men and women went to sea in every age and place.

The untold history of the maritime branches of two giants of early-twentieth-century Canadian railroads. The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway and the Canadian Northern Railway, two giants of Canadian rail transportation, each operated maritime shipping ventures during the early twentieth century. Numerous vessels, including sidewheel, paddlewheel, and propeller steamers, tugboats, and barges, helped to build and serve these railways. Passenger and merchant ships sailed the West Coast, the Great Lakes, and St. Lawrence River, and served Canadian and European ports, in a time when groundings, shipwrecks, and sinkings often claimed lives. These same steamship lines played an important role in World War I, when Canadian vessels ferried men and war supplies. Many troopships and freighters were torpedoed, and Canadian Northern’s entire transatlantic fleet was virtually obliterated. Illustrated with contemporary photographs and drawings, this book pays tribute to the maritime enterprises of two trailblazing Canadian railway greats.