A compelling history of the greatest ships ever launched.The importance of the fighting ship is as considerable today as ever before. Battleships are built, counted, assessed and exercised with the same determination now as at the beginning of the twentieth century, and during the Napoleonic Wars. In this riveting book, leading historian Richard Hough examines fifteen of history's most significant and interesting battleships, from Lord Howard Effingham's Ark Royal, which held the Spanish Armada at bay, to the American New Jersey, which took part in three wars, and whose guns still remain ready for action. From the mighty German Bismarck of 1941, destroyed on its first operation voyage, Battleship ranges to Admiral Nelson's legendary HMS Victory, still a flagship after more than 200 years Hough weaves these examples into a pattern of progress ranging from the galleon to the immense super-dreadnought. In addition, he focuses in depth upon armaments, structural developments, and the tactics of war - all these play a crucial part in the epic history of the battleship. But above all Richard Hough's story is a human one, a record of men and ships, of courage and endurance - a true taste of the sea.

For 1930s Britain, the Queen Mary was a symbol of hope. Cunard had abandoned construction on what they had planned to be the grandest liner of all time (then known simply as Job 534) in the depths of the Depression. Her half-finished hull sat on the Clyde for years, but when Cunard announced they were going to complete her, it was a sign, perhaps, that the darkest days were over, that the country was emerging from economic disaster and that Britannia would soon rule the waves once again. The Queen Mary would go on to be one of the most famous ships in the world for all the right reasons. The first British ship to be over 1,000 feet in length, launched by her namesake (and for which the Clyde had to be artificially widened to allow such a large ship to pass through), she won the Blue Riband (the record for fastest Atlantic crossing) not once by twice - and when she won it the second time in 1938 she held it until 1952. After wartime service carrying up to 16,000 US troops to Europe at a time, she finally retired to Long Beach, California, in 1967. There she remains, a perfectly preserved reminder of a bygone era, and a celebration of the golden age of the transatlantic liner. In this book David Ellery, maritime historian, TV presenter and documentary maker, answers all the questions you might have about this glorious ship - and ones you might never have thought to ask too. This unique, accessible approach gives a fantastic introduction to the ship to anyone curious about her, but is also very detailed and comprehensive, covering everything from the ship's design, construction, engineering and interior fittings to her naming, wartime service and more. Packed with archival photographs and other original material, this is a fascinating and illuminating guide to the Queen Mary, looking beneath the sheen of her appointments to explore how her fame is well deserved.

'James Seay Dean is the noted authority on these voyages ... he provides a sympathetic treatment of life aboard ship in some of the most challenging circumstances these redoubtable sailors faced "beyond the line".' - Professor Barry Gough, maritime historian 'A fascinating and informative account of the development of Tudor and Stuart sailing ships. Its examination of their architecture, sailing, and tactics, especially as it is set within the international political context, makes a most interesting story.' - Bryan Barrett, Commander RN, ret. From jacktar to captain, what was life like aboard an Elizabethan ship? How did the men survive tropical heat, storms, bad water, rotten food, disease, poor navigation, shifting cargoes and enemy fire? Would a sailor return alive? Sea Dogs follows in the footsteps of the average sailor, drawing from the accounts of sixteenth-century and early seventeenth-century ocean voyages to convey the realities of everyday life aboard the galleons sailing between England and the West Indies and beyond. Celebrating the extraordinary drive and courage of those early sailors who left the familiarity of their English estuaries for the dangers of the Cabo Verde and the Caribbean, the Rivers Amazonas and Orinoco, and the Strait of Magellan, and their remarkable achievements, Sea Dogs is essential reading for anyone with an interest in English maritime heritage.

Facing an insurmountable deficit in resources compared to the Union navy, the Confederacy resorted to unorthodox forms of warfare to combat enemy forces. Perhaps the most energetic and effective torpedo corps and secret service company organized during the American Civil War, the Singer Secret Service Corps, led by Texan inventor and entrepreneur Edgar Collins Singer, developed and deployed submarines, underwater weaponry, and explosive devices. The group's main government-financed activity, which eventually led to other destructive inventions such as the Hunley submarine and behind-enemy-line railroad sabotage, was the manufacture and deployment of an underwater contact mine. During the two years the Singer group operated, several Union gunboats, troop transports, supply trains, and even the famous ironclad monitor Tecumseh fell prey to its inventions. In Confederate Saboteurs: Building the Hunley and Other Secret Weapons of the Civil War, submarine expert and nautical historian Mark K. Ragan presents the untold story of the Singer corps. Poring through previously unpublished archival documents, Ragan also examines the complex personalities and relationships behind the Confederacy's use of torpedoes and submarines.

Although books on strip building canoes abound, this is among the first to adapt the technique to crafting attractive, functional kayaks. Using high-quality, computer-generated illustrations and photographs to explain key techniques, the book provides complete plans and measurements for three different kayaks: 1) A simple solo craft for beginners, 2) A high-performance solo kayak for intermediate paddlers, and 3) A tandem design for two paddlers. With its easy-to-follow guidance and instructions, The Strip-Built Sea Kayak makes top-notch kayaks accessible to budget-minded paddlers.

For new boating enthusiasts--even if theyve been at it awhile--there are scores of burning questions. If one boat has a round bottom and anothers is veed, what difference does it make in the way they perform? What are the advantages of a cutter rig over a sloop? Why does one sailor swear by a full keel, while others wont have anything but a fin keel? Why does one powerboat have more flare in its topsides than another? And what is flare? Why do some hull shapes look right? How big an engine and propeller will it take to move that powerboat? What elements make a boat safe, or comfortable?

Understanding Boat Design has been the place to look for quick, uncomplicated answers since 1971. Founder of the Yacht Design Institute, a highly respected designer for more than 30 years, and a frequent contributor to SAIL, Cruising World, and other magazines, Ted Brewer has again revised his classic primer. This new volume has been greatly expanded and contains information on many aspects of design that were not even thought of twenty years ago.

Understanding Boat Design has eased tens of thousands of readers into the complex world of small-craft design. It is the ideal introduction for backyard boatbuilders, students of boat design, or someone looking to buy a first boat.

This tight little book should be required reading.--Soundings

A natural for those embarking on a first purchase, or the amateur builder.--Sailing

One of the cleanest and clearest expositions on the elements of yacht design ever published . . . by a naval architect who knows what he is talking about.--WoodenBoat

Leith-Built Ships is a testimony to the skill of the men who built the ships and to the many men and women who may have sailed or served on them. This history is brought together in vol. I of a three-volume series about the almost-forgotten part that Leith played in our great maritime heritage and is the culmination of the author's lifetime experience of shipbuilding. Most people may well be aware of the part played by the great shipbuilding centres in the UK's history but many may be unaware of the part played by the shipbuilders of Leith. This port was once Scotland's main port with many firsts to its name. Leith had begun building ships some 400 years before the great shipyards of the Clyde and these vessels reached all corners of the globe, touching many people's lives. Some had sad histories while others took part in some of the great conflicts of the times; many were just ordinary working vessels that carried their crew safely through long working lives. With a pedigree of shipbuilding second to none going back over 660 years of recorded history, the ships built at Leith deserve their place in history and this book begins the story.

The Reeds Looseleaf Update Pack provides all the information required to navigate Atlantic coastal waters around the UK, Ireland, Channel Islands, and the entire European coastline from the tip of Denmark right down to Gibraltar, the Azores and Madeira. A versatile system that combines almanac and pilotage information in a convenient looseleaf form, the Looseleaf Almanac is inserted into a durable binder which stays open on the chart table and lets the user tailor the Almanac to their needs by personalising the contents supplied with whatever information they may want to add or take out. The Update Pack 2024 is for those who have bought the Reeds Looseleaf Almanac in previous years and just want to update their information rather than buy the binder again. Includes 700 harbour chartlets, harbour facilities, tide tables and streams, 7,500 waypoints, international codes and flags, weather, distance tables, passage advice, area planning charts, rules of the road, radio information, communications, safety, documentation and customs. The 2023 edition is updated throughout, containing over 45,000 changes. Also includes a free Reeds Marina Guide. Also available: free supplements of up-to-date navigation changes from January to June at: www.reedsnauticalalmanac.co.uk "There are some things I would not go to sea without - Reeds is one of them" Sir Chay Blyth "The big, bold, extravagantly comprehensive king of Almanacs" Yachting World "On every cruising boat you'll find one of these. Don't start your engines without it" Motor Boat and Yachting "The bible of almanacs" Classic Boat

This book provides comprehensive coverage of the basic theoretical work required by Marine Engineering Officers and Electrotechnical Officers (ETOs), putting into place key fundamental building blocks and topics in electrotechnology before progressing to more complex topics and electromagnetic systems. Volume 6 covers essential basic electrotechnology principles for the 21st century, including the fundamentals of electron theory, AC and DC current, circuits, electromagnetism and electrochemistry, providing a firm foundation for complementary Volume 7 in the Marine Engineering Series to discuss emergent technology such as image intensifers, the transistor, increased maritime use of LEDs, and references to modern ship systems such as GPS, ECDIS, Radar and AIS. This new edition has been thoroughly updated in line with guidelines, best practice and the many technological developments that have taken place over the past 5 years since the previous edition published, as well as improvements and updates to the technical diagrams.

The technical details of British warships were recorded in a set of plans produced by the builders on completion of every ship. Known as the as fitted general arrangements, these drawings documented the exact appearance and fitting of the ship as it entered service. They were very large more than 12 feet long for capital ships highly detailed, annotated and labelled, and drawn with exquisite skill in multi-coloured inks and washes. Intended to provide a permanent reference for the Admiralty and the dockyards, they represent the acme of the draughtsman s art. Today these plans form part of the incomparable collection of the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich, which is using the latest scanning technology to make digital copies of the highest quality. This book is the first of a series based entirely on these draughts which will depict famous warships in an unprecedented degree of detail complete sets in full colour, with many close-ups and enlargements that make every aspect clear and comprehensible. Extensive captions point the reader to important features to be found in the plans, and an introduction covers the background to the design. The celebrated battleship _Warspite_ is an ideal introduction to this new series an apparently familiar subject, but given this treatment the result is an anatomy that will fascinate every warship enthusiast and ship modeller.

This exciting new edition covers the core subject areas of arithmetic, algebra, mensuration in 2D and 3D, trigonometry and geometry, graphs, calculus and statistics and probability for Marine Engineering students for the Merchant Navy OOW qualification. Initial examples have been designed purely to practise mathematical technique and, once these skills have been mastered, further examples focus on engineering situations where the appropriate skills may be utilised. The practical questions are primarily from a marine engineering background but questions from other disciplines, such as electrical engineering, will also be covered, and reference made to the use of advanced calculators where relevant.

The Canal du Midi, which threads through southwestern France and links the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, was an astonishing feat of seventeenth-century engineering--in fact, it was technically impossible according to the standards of its day. Impossible Engineering takes an insightful and entertaining look at the mystery of its success as well as the canal's surprising political significance. The waterway was a marvel that connected modern state power to human control of nature just as surely as it linked the ocean to the sea. The Canal du Midi is typically characterized as the achievement of Pierre-Paul Riquet, a tax farmer and entrepreneur for the canal. Yet Chandra Mukerji argues that it was a product of collective intelligence, depending on peasant women and artisans--unrecognized heirs to Roman traditions of engineering--who came to labor on the waterway in collaboration with military and academic supervisors. Ironically, while Louis XIV and his treasury minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert used propaganda to present France as a new Rome, the Canal du Midi was being constructed with unrecognized classical methods. Still, the result was politically potent. As Mukerji shows, the project took land and power from local nobles, using water itself as a silent agent of the state to disrupt traditions of local life that had served regional elites. Impossible Engineering opens a surprising window into the world of seventeenth-century France and illuminates a singular work of engineering undertaken to empower the state through technical conquest of nature.

After completing his studies at Trinity College, Oxford, John Charnock (1756-1807) joined the Royal Navy as a volunteer. Though details of his career at sea are lacking, he is known to have embarked on assiduous research into historical and contemporary naval affairs, and he cultivated contacts with many serving officers. His six-volume Biographia Navalis (1794-8), flawed yet still useful, is also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection. Published in three volumes from 1800 to 1802, the present work stands as the first serious study of naval architecture in Britain in particular, while also noting major developments in Europe and beyond. The volumes are illustrated throughout with numerous designs of vessels. Volume 2 (1801) opens by considering Venetian and Genoese seafaring in the middle of the fifteenth century. Significant space is then given to the navies of the Tudors and Stuarts, and to changes in Europe up to the end of the seventeenth century.

‘This book is a must-have for any serious racing sailor’ – Sir Ben Ainslie, four-time Olympic gold winning sailor Paul Elvstrøm is arguably the greatest Olympic sailor of all time. Proving that understanding the rules is crucial to winning, he devised this unique approach to explaining them using bird’s-eye diagrams. His detailed explanations are applied to myriad racing situations, each cross-referenced to relevant case studies provided by World Sailing (formerly ISAF). Included with the book are a set of plastic boats, for use during protest hearings. They are transparent but coloured differently so can also be used with an overhead projector. This edition is completely revised to cover the new rules issued for 2021–24. It includes the full text of the latest rules, with a handy quick-reference guide highlighting the latest changes. There is also a confidence-building section on how to present your case in a protest, and the back cover shows the signal flags for instant easy reference on the race course. Long established as the most accessible and most trusted guide to the racing rules, Elvstrøm Explains is a must-have. Whether racing in a dinghy, keelboat or large yacht, it is the perfect pocket reference for those who want to win.

Reeds Skipper's Handbook, now in its 6th edition, has been a bestseller since first publication 20 years ago. Now for the first time, here is the Reeds Crew Handbook for skippers to hand to new and aspiring crew. It will give them all the essential knowledge they need to undertake the tasks traditionally handled by crew aboard any size of yacht, including: * Steering (both with a tiller and a wheel) * Raising, dropping and reefing a sail * Boat handling (using tide, wind, etc) * Handling lines (throwing, coiling, lassoing, etc) * Tying up a boat on a pontoon and against a quay wall * Attaching bow and stern lines and springs * Handling an anchor * Using the radio * Basic first aid * Essential knots Presented in bite-sized topics in a very accessible and undaunting fashion, and packed with colour illustrations to guide crew through each task, Reeds Crew Handbook will prove an invaluable primer for new crew before going to sea, and a handy pocket-sized aide-memoire for experienced crew when under sail.

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 of unique importance and authority. Treated as historical evidence, they offer more detail than even the best plans, and demonstrate exactly what the ships looked like in a way that even the finest marine painter could not achieve. This book is the first of a series which will take selections of the best models to tell the story of specific ship types - in this case, the evolution of the cruising ship under sail. Each volume reproduces a large number of model photos, all in full colour, and including many close-up and detail views. These are captioned in depth, but many are also annotated to focus attention on interesting or unusual features. Although pictorial in emphasis, the book weaves the pictures into an authoritative text, producing an unusual and attractive form of technical history.While the series will be of particular interest to ship modellers, all those with an interest in ship design and development will attracted to the in-depth analysis of these beautifully presented books.

This long-awaited volume is a majestic guide and a tribute to the world's great yacht designers. Ten years in preparation, and with an expert editorial board giving it direction, "The Encyclopedia of Yacht Designers" defines the field with fascinating entries by eighty experts and over 800 photographs and drawings. In these pages such legendary figures from the past as William Fife, L. Francis Herreshoff, and John Alden share space with contemporary designers such as Jon Bannenberg, German Frers, and Ron Holland. They are joined by over five hundred others who have contributed to the colorful history of yachting, producing some of the most beautiful and swift vessels, whether sail or power.

Originally published in France, this cruising guide to Brazil has been produced to the same high standards as Imray's major pilot books. Over 250 harbours and anchorages are described and illustrated in full colour with charts and photographs.

The book introduces the theory of the structural loading on ships and offshore structures caused by wind, waves and currents, and goes on to describe the applications of this theory in terms of real structures. The main topics described are linear-wave induced motions, loads on floating structures, numerical methods for ascertaining wave induced motions and loads, viscous wave loads and damping, stationkeeping and water impact and entry. The applications of the theoretical principles are introduced with extensive use of exercises and examples. They include conventional ships, barges, high speed marine vehicles, semisubmersibles, tension leg platforms, moored or dynamic positioned ships, risers, buoys, fishing nets, jacket structures and gravity platforms. One aim of the book is to provide a physical understanding through simplified mathematical models. In this way one can develop analytical tools to evaluate results from test models, full scale trials or computer simulation, and learn which parameters represent the major contributions and influences on sea loads.