Richard Hakluyt's 12-volume Principal Navigations Voyages Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation, originally published at the end of the sixteenth century, and reissued by the Cambridge Library Collection in the edition of 1903-5, was followed in 1625 by Hakluytus Posthumus or, Purchas his Pilgrimes, now reissued in a 20-volume edition published in 1905-7. When first published in four folio volumes, the work was the largest ever printed in England. An Anglican priest, Samuel Purchas (1577-1626) was a friend of Hakluyt, and based his great work in part on papers not published by Hakluyt before his death. As well as being a wide-ranging survey of world exploration, it is notable as an anti-Catholic polemic, and a justification of British settlement in North America. Volume 7 describes expeditions to Ethiopia, and various pilgrimages to the Holy Land.

Richard Hakluyt's 12-volume Principal Navigations Voyages Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation, originally published at the end of the sixteenth century, and reissued by the Cambridge Library Collection in the edition of 1903-5, was followed in 1625 by Hakluytus Posthumus or, Purchas his Pilgrimes, now reissued in a 20-volume edition published in 1905-7. When first published in four folio volumes, the work was the largest ever printed in England. An Anglican priest, Samuel Purchas (1577-1626) was a friend of Hakluyt, and based his great work in part on papers not published by Hakluyt before his death. As well as being a wide-ranging survey of world exploration, it is notable as an anti-Catholic polemic, and a justification of British settlement in North America. Volume 8 contains narratives of travel through Syria and Persia, including the story of Benjamin of Tudela, who visited Jewish communities in Europe and the Middle East.

Richard Hakluyt's 12-volume Principal Navigations Voyages Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation, originally published at the end of the sixteenth century, and reissued by the Cambridge Library Collection in the edition of 1903-5, was followed in 1625 by Hakluytus Posthumus or, Purchas his Pilgrimes, now reissued in a 20-volume edition published in 1905-7. When first published in four folio volumes, the work was the largest ever printed in England. An Anglican priest, Samuel Purchas (1577-1626) was a friend of Hakluyt, and based his great work in part on papers not published by Hakluyt before his death. As well as being a wide-ranging survey of world exploration, it is notable as an anti-Catholic polemic, and a justification of British settlement in North America. Volume 6 describes the relations between European and North African fleets in the Mediterranean, and goes on to consider the first European voyages down the west coast of Africa.

Challenges the received wisdom about the relative weakness of French naval power when compared with that of England. This book traces the advances and deterioration of the early modern English and French sea forces and relates these changes to concurrent developments within the respective states. Based on extensive original research in correspondence and memoirs, official reports and accounts, receipts of the exchequer and inventories in both France, where the sources are disparate and dispersed, and England, the book explores the rise of both kingdoms' naval resources from the early sixteenth to the mid seventeenth centuries. As a comparative study, it shows that, in sharing the Channel and with both countries increasing their involvement in maritime affairs, English and French naval expansion was intertwined. Directly and indirectly, the two kingdoms influenced their neighbours' sea programmes. The book first examines the administrative transformations of both navies, then goes on to discuss fiscal and technological change, and finally assesses the material expansion of the respective fleets. In so doing it demonstrates the close relationship between naval power and state strength in early modern Europe. One important argument challenges the received wisdom about the relative weakness of French naval power when compared with that of England.

Originally published in 1694, this record of recent voyages made by Sir John Narborough, Abel Tasman, John Wood and Friderich Martens includes Tasman's account of discovering Tasmania and New Zealand in 1642. Equally engaging, Narborough's journal records his voyage to the Straits of Magellan and his interest in the lands and peoples he encountered from 1669 to 1671. Here also are Wood's thoughts on his 1676 attempt to find a north-east passage to the East Indies, along with Martens' observations on Spitsbergen and whaling in northern waters in 1671. The extracts given here, translated where necessary, offer valuable insights into seventeenth-century navigation and exploration. A selection of illustrations, ranging from maps to depictions of exotic flora and fauna, accompany the text. A key reference for later navigators and for those interested in the history of maritime exploration, the book was also one of the oldest works in Darwin's library aboard the Beagle.

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER. An inventive biography of one of the most famous ships of all time – an alluring combination of history, adventure and science.

‘HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR’ Christopher Hart, Sunday Times

From Johnson’s Dictionary to campaigns for liberty, the Enlightenment was an age of endeavours. ‘Endeavour’ was also the name given to a commonplace, coal-carrying vessel bought by the Royal Navy in 1768 for an expedition to the South Seas. No one could have guessed that Endeavour would go on to become the most significant ship in the history of British exploration.

Endeavour famously carried Captain James Cook on his first great voyage, but her complete story has never been told before. Here, Peter Moore sets out to explore the different lives of this remarkable ship – from the acorn that grew into the oak that made her, to her rich and complex legacy.

‘Fascinating and richly detailed... Peter Moore has brought us an acute insight into the ship that carried some of the most successful explorers across the world. A fine book that’s definitely worth exploring’ MICHAEL PALIN

Jack Tar s Story examines the autobiographies and memoirs of antebellum American sailors to explore contested meanings of manhood and nationalism in the early republic. It is the first study to use various kinds of institutional sources, including crew lists, ships logs, impressment records, to document the stories sailors told. It focuses on how mariner authors remembered/interpreted various events and experiences, including the War of 1812, the Haitian Revolution, South America s wars of independence, British impressment, flogging on the high seas, roistering, and religious conversion. This book straddles different fields of scholarship and suggests how their concerns intersect or resonate with each other: the history of print culture, the study of autobiographical writing, and the historiography of seafaring life and of masculinity in antebellum America."

Sir Edward Parry (1790-1855) wrote accounts of his three Arctic expeditions, which have also been reissued in this series. This book takes the form of letters written to a sibling by an anonymous member of the crew on Parry's 1819-20 voyage. It was brought out in 1821 by the enterprising publisher Richard Phillips ahead of any other narrative, as all accounts and journals had first to be handed to the Admiralty Board for the extraction of any important details. It seems likely that the work, which is carefully constructed and elegant in style, was elaborated either from notes or from a genuine series of letters, to get round the restriction on publication. This is a fascinating narrative, full of striking details, such as entertainments on board to help morale, the reappearance of the sun at the end of the Arctic winter, and the sight of the aurora borealis.

"This volume represents a sea change in educational resources for the history of piracy. In a single, readable, and affordable volume, Lane and Bialuschewski present a wonderfully diverse body of primary texts on sea raiders. Drawn from a variety of sources, including the authors' own archival research and translations, these carefully curated texts cover over two hundred years (1548--1726) of global, early-modern piracy. Lane and Bialuschewski provide glosses of each document and a succinct introduction to the historical context of the period and avoid the romanticized and Anglo-centric depictions of maritime predation that often plague work on the topic." -Jesse Cromwell, The University of Mississippi

In 1871 the British government agreed to support an expedition to collect physical and chemical data and biological specimens from the world's oceans. Led by Charles Wyville Thomson (1830 82), the expedition used HMS Challenger, refitted with laboratories. They sailed nearly 70,000 nautical miles around the world, took soundings and water samples at hundreds of stops along the way, and discovered more than 4,000 new marine species. Noted for the discovery of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and the Pacific's deepest trench, the expedition laid the foundations for modern oceanography. This acclaimed two-volume account, first published in 1877, summarises the major discoveries for the Atlantic legs of this pioneering voyage. Illustrated with plates and woodcuts, Volume 1 describes the laboratories and equipment, the observations from Portsmouth via Tenerife to the Caribbean, and the detailed studies on the Gulf Stream."

In 1871 the British government agreed to support an expedition to collect physical and chemical data and biological specimens from the world's oceans. Led by Charles Wyville Thomson (1830 82), the expedition used HMS Challenger, refitted with laboratories. They sailed nearly 70,000 nautical miles around the world, took soundings and water samples at hundreds of stops along the way, and discovered more than 4,000 new marine species. Noted for the discovery of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and the Pacific's deepest trench, the expedition laid the foundations for modern oceanography. This acclaimed two-volume account, first published in 1877, summarises the major discoveries for the Atlantic legs of this pioneering voyage. Illustrated with plates and woodcuts, Volume 2 describes the voyage from the Caribbean via Madeira to the coast of Brazil, then to South Africa. The voyage home in 1876 from the Strait of Magellan is also covered. A final chapter summarises the principal conclusions."

A meticulously researched account of how the US Navy evolved between the War of 1812 and the Civil War. The 1830s is an overlooked period in American naval history and is usually overshadowed by the more dramatic War of 1812 and the Civil War. Nevertheless, the personnel, operations, technologies, policies, and vision of the Navy of that era, which was emerging from the "Age of Sail," are important components of its evolution, setting it on the long path to its status as a global maritime power. On Wide Seas: The US Navy in the Jacksonian Era details the ways in which the US Navy transformed from an antiquated arm of the nation's military infrastructure into a more dynamic and effective force that was soon to play a pivotal role in a number of national and international conflicts. By Andrew Jackson's inauguration in 1829, the Navy had engaged with two major powers, defended American shipping, conducted antipiracy operations, and provided a substantive, long-term overseas presence. The Navy began to transform during Jackson's administration due in part to the policies of the administration and to the emerging officer corps, which sought to professionalize its own ranks, modernize the platforms on which it sailed, and define its own role within national affairs and in the broader global maritime commons. Jackson had built his reputation as a soldier, but he quickly recognized as president the necessity for a navy that could foster his policies. To expand American commerce, he needed a navy that could defend shipping as well as conduct punitive raids or deterrence missions. Jackson developed a clear, concise naval strategy that policymakers and officers alike could seize and execute. Jackson provided a vision for the Navy, interceded to resolve naval disciplinary challenges, and directed naval operations. Also, given Jackson's own politics, junior officers were emboldened by the populist era to challenge traditional, conservative thinking. They carried out a collective vision that coincided with the national literary movement that recognized America's future would rely upon the Navy.

Following distinguished naval service during the Napoleonic Wars, Edward Chappell (1792-1861) took part in two voyages patrolling British fisheries in North America. The second of these, in 1814, is recounted in this journal, first published in 1817. Illustrated with several engravings, Chappell's narrative dwells in particular upon the Inuit, who were little understood by Europeans at the time. Knowing only a few Inuit words, Chappell traded with them and was admitted to their homes. Though somewhat superficial and patronising, his descriptions revised previous accounts and brought new information to English readers. The rest of the journal brims with evocative anecdotes from the journey - a polar bear sighting, a thunderstorm on an ice-ridden sea, a meeting with a renowned Native American chieftain. The appendices provide such additional information as navigational data, details of Inuit dress, and a short vocabulary of the Cree language.

*Shortlisted for the 2019 Mountbatten Award* "We went up on deck and were looking around when the awful crash came. The ship listed so much that we all scrambled down the deck and for a moment everything was in confusion. When I came to myself again I glanced around but could find no trace of Mr Prichard. He seemed to have disappeared." - Grace French The sinking of the Lusitania is an event that has been predominantly discussed from a political or maritime perspective. For the first time, The Lusitania Sinking tells the story in the emotive framework of a family looking for information on their son's death. On 1 May 1915, the 29-year-old student Preston Prichard embarked as a Second Class passenger on the Lusitania, bound from New York for Liverpool. By 2pm on the afternoon of 7 May, the liner was approaching the coast of Ireland when she was sighted by the German submarine U-20\. A single torpedo caused a massive explosion in the Lusitania's hold, and the ship began sank rapidly. Within 20 minutes she disappeared and 1,198 men, women and children, including Preston, died. Uncertain of Preston's fate, his family leaped into action. His brother Mostyn, who lived in Ramsgate, travelled to Queenstown to search morgues but could find nothing. Preston's mother wrote hundreds of letters to survivors to find out more about what might have happened in his last moments. The Lusitania Sinking compiles the responses received. Perhaps sensing his fate, Prichard had put his papers in order before embarking and told a fellow student where to find his will if anything happened to him. During the voyage, he was often seen in the company of Grace French, quoted above. Alice Middleton, who had a crush on him but was too shy to speak to him throughout the entire voyage, remembered that he helped her in reaching the upper decks during the last moments of the sinking: "[The Lusitania] exploded and down came her funnels, so over I jumped. I had a terrible time in the water, 41/2 hours bashing about among the wreckage and dead bodies... It was 10.30 before they landed me at the hospital in an unconscious condition. In fact, they piled me with a boat full of dead and it was only when they were carrying the dead bodies to the Mortuary that they discovered there was still life in me."

Europe and the Maritime World: A Twentieth-Century History offers a new framework for understanding globalization over the past century. Through a detailed analysis of ports, shipping, and trading companies whose networks spanned the world, Michael B. Miller shows how a European maritime infrastructure made modern production and consumer societies possible. He argues that the combination of overseas connections and close ties to home ports contributed to globalization. Miller also explains how the ability to manage merchant shipping's complex logistics was central to the outcome of both world wars. He chronicles transformations in hierarchies, culture, identities, and port city space, all of which produced a new and different maritime world by the end of the century.

Following participation in the Arctic search for Sir John Franklin, the mariner and author William Parker Snow (1817 95) volunteered in 1854 to command the schooner Allen Gardiner, named after the man whose work for the South American Missionary Society was to be resumed. Although conceived as 'merely a simple narrative of daily life in the Southern Seas', this illustrated two-volume work becomes simultaneously a first-hand account of a sailor's experiences and observations, and a self-justification against those by whom he felt disappointed, frustrated and deceived. Volume 1 recounts the history of the Falkland Islands and the circumstances of this mission, covering the voyage to Patagonia, the establishment of a station on Keppel Island and the first friendly meetings with 'dreaded savages'. First published in 1857, the book met with some success. Snow, however, wasted the proceeds on a fruitless action against his former employers.

Following participation in the Arctic search for Sir John Franklin, the mariner and author William Parker Snow (1817 95) volunteered in 1854 to command the schooner Allen Gardiner, named after the man whose work for the South American Missionary Society was to be resumed. Although conceived as 'merely a simple narrative of daily life in the Southern Seas', this illustrated two-volume work becomes simultaneously a first-hand account of a sailor's experiences and observations, and a self-justification against those by whom he felt disappointed, frustrated and deceived. Volume 2 includes an account of meeting 'Jemmy Button', the Fuegian who had been taken to Britain on the Beagle. It also charts the series of difficulties Snow faced as captain, which culminated in his dismissal and abandonment on the Falklands. First published in 1857, the narrative met with some success. Snow, however, wasted the proceeds on a fruitless action against his former employers.

George Anson Byron (1789-1868), cousin of the famous poet, was a naval officer and the seventh Baron Byron. When the king and queen of Hawaii died of measles in July 1824 on a visit to England, Byron was chosen to lead the voyage that returned the bodies to their native land. Prepared by Maria Graham (1785-1842), known later as Lady Callcott, this work was published in 1826 and organised into two parts: the first gives a brief history of the islands, culminating in an account of the fatal visit; the second and larger part is compiled from the journals of those on board HMS Blonde. Engravings made from the drawings of the ship's artist, Robert Dampier, complement observations about the geography of Hawaii, its people and their customs. The remarkable journey home involved the first European sighting of Malden Island and the rescue of survivors from a shipwreck.

In May 1787, eleven ships left England with more than seven hundred convicts on board, along with orders to establish a penal colony at Botany Bay, New South Wales. Watkin Tench (c.1758 1833) was a crew member on one of the ships of this First Fleet, the Charlotte, and he recalls the voyage and early days of the settlement in this vivid and engaging account, first published in 1789. The first half of the work retraces the route of the six-month journey, which took the fleet to Brazil and the Cape of Good Hope. The later chapters recount the landing at Botany Bay in January 1788, the establishment of a colony at nearby Port Jackson and observations about the natural world in this new settlement. Tench also discusses the initial interaction with the Aboriginal people, making this work an important source for scholars of British colonialism and Australian history.

John Byron (1723-86) died a vice-admiral, having earned the nickname 'Foulweather Jack' after much experience on rough seas. In 1741 he was a midshipman aboard HMS Wager in a squadron sent to attack Spanish ships off Chile. Shipwrecked in a storm after rounding Cape Horn, the majority of the survivors turned on their captain and attempted to make their own way home. Byron was among the group who stayed with the commanding officer. In 1768, now a commodore, he published this account of the five harrowing years it took to get back to England, by which time he was one of only four survivors. Although no doubt written to give his side of the story, it appealed to a public eager for tales of dramatic endurance against the odds. Aboard the Beagle on Darwin's voyage, the book also informed the shipwreck in Don Juan by the author's grandson.

A student of Carl Linnaeus, Pehr Osbeck (1723 1805) was a Swedish explorer, naturalist and chaplain. He travelled to Asia in 1750 2 and brought back some six hundred specimens that were included in Linnaeus' Species Plantarum (1753). His account of his voyage was published in Swedish in 1757, in German in 1765, and here in English in 1771, edited and translated by Johann Reinhold Forster (1729 98). This two-volume work also includes letters to Linnaeus by another pupil, Olof Toren (1718 53), who also travelled to the East in the early 1750s, as well as a paper on Chinese husbandry by Carl Gustaf Ekeberg (1716 84). Ekeberg made ten trips to China and India between 1742 and 1778, becoming a captain in the Swedish East India Company. He too brought back numerous specimens for Linnaeus. Volume 2 contains the conclusion of Osbeck's account, the pieces by Toren and Ekeberg, and a catalogue of animals and plants native to China.

A student of Carl Linnaeus, Pehr Osbeck (1723 1805) was a Swedish explorer, naturalist and chaplain. He travelled to Asia in 1750 2 and brought back some six hundred specimens that were included in Linnaeus' Species Plantarum (1753). His account of his voyage was published in Swedish in 1757, in German in 1765, and here in English in 1771, edited and translated by Johann Reinhold Forster (1729 98). This two-volume work also includes letters to Linnaeus by another pupil, Olof Toren (1718 53), who also travelled to the East in the early 1750s, as well as a paper on Chinese husbandry by Carl Gustaf Ekeberg (1716 84). Ekeberg made ten trips to China and India between 1742 and 1778, becoming a captain in the Swedish East India Company. He too brought back numerous specimens for Linnaeus. Volume 1, however, is given over entirely to Osbeck's narrative.

The explorer, soldier and geophysicist Sir Edward Sabine (1788 1883) served as astronomer on John Ross's 1818 expedition in search of the North-West Passage. His return to the Arctic, under William Parry in 1819 20, compounded a keen interest in geomagnetism and his publications earned him the Copley Medal of the Royal Society (whose presidency he would later hold). His experience and expertise made him a natural editor, therefore, of this Arctic narrative, translated into English from German by his wife, Elizabeth Juliana Leeves (1807 79), and published in 1840. It is the account by Ferdinand von Wrangell (1797 1870), a Russian explorer of Baltic German ancestry, regarding his expedition to survey Siberia's north-eastern coastline. Compiled from the notes of the scientists on board, this work offers a valuable and wide-ranging insight into an inaccessible and little-known portion of the globe.

Published in English translation in 1793, this was the first study of Madagascar by a European. A member of the Academie des Sciences, Alexis-Marie de Rochon (1741 1817) was a distinguished French physicist, astronomer and traveller. He was involved in scientific voyages of discovery in the 1770s, conducting a hydrographic survey of the Indian Ocean. The present account was intended to show the advantages of French settlement in Madagascar and includes details of geography, anthropology and agriculture. In discussing cocoa and sugar, Rochon outlines the potential advantages of steam engines in sugar factories. He also provides an exploration history of the region and an interesting account of colonial leaders, notably Maurice Benyovszky (1746 86), the explorer-adventurer who was appointed governor of Madagascar by Louis XV. The work also includes a 'Memoir of the Chinese Trade', which details the many products traded between Europe and China in the late eighteenth century.

Admiral William Henry Smyth (1780 1865) went to sea at an early age, becoming a sailor and surveyor with the East India Company, and later moving to Mediterranean waters. A founding member of the Royal Geographical Society in 1830, he spent much of his free time engaged in scientific pursuits. One of his final projects was this 'word-book' of nautical terminology, which he had been compiling throughout his career, and whose publication was eagerly anticipated by his fellow naval officers. Although Smyth died before it was published in 1867, his notes were edited by his family and revised by Sir Edward Belcher (1799 1877). Ranging from technical terminology to sailors' slang, Smyth's glossary contains more than 700 pages of definitions, arranged alphabetically, making it an indispensable source on nineteenth-century nautical vocabulary for both maritime historians and sailing aficionados.