This book examines how the principal British maritime industries - shipping, shipbuilding and ports - adapted, or failed to adapt, to a changing world in the period between 1918 to 1990, and discusses their reactions to the great opportunities seemingly offered by offshore oil and gas from the mid-1960s. At the outbreak of World War I, Britain's maritime industries still dominated the world. The British merchant fleet was by far the largest in the world, the nation's shipbuilding output eclipsed all rivals, and British ports were busy and expanding.By 1990, British shipping was a shadow of its former self, shipbuilding seemed on the verge of total collapse, and although the ports had been modernised, trade was concentrated at only a few of them. For almost four centuries, these industries had been of vital importance to Britain's wealth and power, but by 1990, politicians scarcely gave them a second thought.

Out of the Depths explores all aspects of shipwrecks across 4,000 years, examining their historical context and significance, and showing how shipwrecks can be time capsules, shedding new light on long-departed societies and civilizations. Alan G. Jamieson not only informs readers of the technological developments over the last sixty years that have made the true appreciation of shipwrecks possible, but covers shipwrecks in culture, maritime archaeology, treasure hunters and their environmental impacts. Although shipwrecks have become less common in recent decades, their implications have become more wide-ranging: since the 1960s, foundering supertankers have caused massive environmental disasters, and in 2021 the blocking of the Suez Canal by the giant container ship Ever Given had a serious impact on global trade.

During the sixteenth century Sir John Dexter, an English Catholic exile, makes a new life as a soldier of the king of Spain in the war against the Ottoman Turks around the Mediterranean Sea. Five hundred years later, Tom Dexter, a descendant of Sir John, is a member of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) carrying on the war against terrorism in which he opposes the modern day forces of militant Islam. The two men inhabit very different worlds, centuries apart, yet there are linkages between their experiences. The novel interweaves the two worlds and different destinies of Sir John and Tom. It follows Sir John through his experiences in the great events of his time, including the siege of Malta and the great naval battle of Lepanto. In the modern world Tom and his American colleagues in the CIA are on the trail of Islamist terrorists and their deadly missiles, but Tom is dangerously distracted by his love for Susie Marsden, who has her own agenda. For Tom, as for his ancestor Sir John, the climax of his endeavours takes place in Morocco. That country becomes the crossroads of the years.