THE HISTORY OF THE SHIP
by Richard Woodman
Coracle, curragh, and carrack, tramp and dreadnought, opium clipper and Scotch boilerships all, and all lovingly detailed in this shrewd encyclopedic history of seafaring (complete with a dash of danger and romance) from Woodman (author of the Captain Drinkwater novels: A Private Revenge, 1990, etc.), who spent his working life under the red ensign. Like all good surveys, this one starts at the beginning, when that earliest water-borne craft pushed beyond the horizon: perhaps, Woodman suggests, Pharaoh Sahure's marauding squadron. That first salty expression of malicious royal puissance was a harbinger of things to come, as ships came to symbolize military and political mightexploring, battling, trading, supplying the great war hoststhat has yet to be fully eclipsed. Woodman hits upon all aspects of nautical historythe search for longitude, developments in hydrography, ship design and argot, seagoing mavericks and forgotten heroesand has saturated his book with gorgeous maps and cross-sections, color and vintage photographs, and ship portraits. (History Book Club alternate selection)