Between 1940 and 1945 London suffered 101 daylight and 253 night-time air raids from the Luftwaffe and V1 and V2's. There were 80,000 fatalities or serious injuries and appalling devastation. Well documented as these horrific events are, there was another major threat - the all too real possibility of widespread flooding whenever the Nazi onslaught breached the Thames' river defences. This superbly researched and illustrated book describes the vital role and unsung achievements of the London County Council emergency repair teams ably led by Chief Engineer Thomas Peirson Frank. Three rapid response units were formed and, in the event, undertook repairs to over 100 breaches of the flood defences, thus saving the Capital from drowning. We also learn of the fate of London's docks and bridges and of the ships, boats and barges lost in the estuary and tideway. This fascinating account has been compiled by the Thames Discovery Programme team and, 80 years on, pays tribute to the non-combatants who kept the major port running and saved London.

Sometime in the late 16th to early 17th century an armed merchantman foundered in the Thames Estuary. Forgotten for over four centuries, it was rediscovered in 2003 as the Port of London Authority began clearing navigational hazards from the Princes Channel. Wessex Archaeology were alerted and recovered five sections of the ship's hull and four guns, as well as numerous artefacts. The first report in this two-volume set presented studies of the hull compiled by the University of Southern Denmark. The second volume describes the research undertaken at University College London on the wider maritime context, the conservation process and the analysis of the contents recovered from the wreck site. Prominent in the cargo were 42 iron bars thought to be of a type - so-called 'voyage iron' - sometimes traded to West Africa as the first stage of the transatlantic slave trade. With a tonnage of some 150 tons, the Gresham Ship emerges from this research as an all too rare example of typical armed merchantman of the age, capable of ocean passages, operating as a privateer or even serving with the Queen's Navy against the Armada.