Product Description: The life, career, and world of Samuel Pepys, lavishly illustrated and published to coincide with an exhibition at the National Maritime Museum Samuel Pepys (1633–1703) lived through one of the most exciting and troubled periods in English history...read more

First written in 1858, this thrilling narrative recounts the true story of Fanny Loviot, a wealthy, young French girl who was kidnapped at sea. After setting sail for California in 1855, Fanny's boat was overtaken and she was captured by Chinese pirates who held her hostage and demanded a ransom. This personal account follows her trying time in captivity, as well as her dramatic rescue by British authorities.

Product Description: This book shows how pirates were portrayed in their own time, in trial reports, popular prints, novels, legal documents, sermons, ballads and newspaper accounts. It examines how attitudes towards them changed with Britain’s growing imperial power, exploring the interface between political ambition and personal greed, between civil liberties and the power of the state...read more

Product Description: Naval Wives & Mistresses is an innovative study of naval women who stayed at home while their men went to sea. Focusing on the second half of the 18th century, a period when Britain was almost continuously at war, this book looks at different social groups, from the aristocratic elite to the laboring and criminal poor, prostitutes, and petty thieves...read more

Product Description: With an introduction by N.A.M Rodger and accompanying essays by leading international experts, Nelson & Napoléon explores the political, social and cultural contexts for one of the most significant naval battles in history, the Battle of Trafalgar (1805)...read more

Product Description: Britain's overseas Empire pre-eminently involved the sea. In a two-way process, ships carried travellers and explorers, trade goods, migrants to new lands, soldiers to fight wars and garrison colonies, and also ideas and plants that would find fertile minds and soils in other lands...read more

Product Description: From the mid 18th century up till after memories of the Napoleonic wars and the glories of 'Nelson's navy' had faded, the Royal Navy was the bulwark of Britain's defence and the safeguard of trade and imperial expansion. While there have been political and military histories of the Navy in this period, looking at battles and personalities, and studies of its administration and the life below decks, this book is the first study of the Navy in a cultural context, exploring contemporary attitudes to war and peace and to ideologies of race and gender...read more

Product Description: The exploration of the Pacific in the eighteenth century by western Europeans has an enduring fascination for both specialists and a wider public. Within this field, Cook's voyages have a particular appeal: they include exciting elements of danger, scientific investigation, encounters between different cultures...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Text and photos provide an introduction to the history of boats, from simple floating logs and dugout canoes to high-tech fishing boats, icebreakers, and floating airports

Product Description: Avast ye landlubbers! Meet Captain Kidd, Blackbeard, and other famous pirates and buccaneers--including a few swashbuckling women! Learn everything about pirate life, from the clothes they wore and the ships they sailed to the fate of those who were caught...read more

Provides facts about real pirates such as Long Ben Avery, Black Bart, Captain Kidd, and Henry Morgan; discusses piratical customs; and gives instructions for making pirate shoe buckles, a treasure map, and other items.

Text and photos provide an introduction to the history of boats, from simple floating logs and dugout canoes to high-tech fishing boats, icebreakers, and floating airports