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Dugout canoes, skin-covered curraghs, Nelson's ships-of-the-line, battleships, ocean liners, container ships, aircraft carriers, and supertankers are among the vessels described and illustrated in drawings, paintings, and photographs. Seafarer and nautical adventure writer Woodman follows the change in technology, and sets the design and use of ships into political and economic contexts. He includes a glossary with substantial articles, but no guide to pronunciations. Conway Maritime Press, London also published the volume in 1997. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Wrenched by tragedy from a peaceful and respectable middle-class home in Victorian London, Hannah Kemball finds herself accompanying her father, Captain “Cracker Jack” Kemball, aboard the tea-clipper Erl King on a voyage to China. It is 1869. In shanghai and Foochow, the crack British tea-clippers are loading the season’s tea, preparing for the annual race to bring their valuable cargoes and the fortunes of their swaggering crews halfway around the world to the London market. Unfortunately for Hannah, only one thing matters t the iron-willed captains about to pit their skills against the perils of three oceans: to be the first to make it home. Overconfident of victory, Captain Kemball strikes a wager with the sinister Captain Richards of the Seawitch. The stakes: Hannah’s hand in marriage. The race is on, and as the sails unfurl, so do the dangers for Hannah aboard her father’s ship. As the fastest sailing vessels ever built storm across the world’s oceans, she learns that this is a race with no rules, and that murder, mayhem and deceit are all part of the game.

Among the coral outcrops of the island of Rota, lies the wreck of a Spanish galleon, the Santa Margarita - Spring 1601. This is a reconstruction of the Santa Margaritas disastrous last voyage, beset by an extraordinary sequence of typhoons and storms. Based on what little is known of the ships journey overloaded cargo, bad-blood amongst the crew and a curse we are told a story of greed, horror, deprivation and unimaginable hardship by the handful of survivors rescued from the wreck.

It is 1814 and Napoleon has abdicated as Emperor of the French. King Louis XVIII is brought out of his English exile and escorted back to France by an Allied squadron commanded by the Duke of Clarence. The "Great War" is at an end and Europe prepares to celebrate the return of legitimate monarchy. But the victorious Allies are increasingly suspicious of one another. Alexander I, the capricious Tsar of Russia, believes he is the savior of the world, while Great Britain—whose sea power has guaranteed victory at sea and contributed to the military success of Russia, Austria, and Prussia—remains at war with the United States of America. Out of the ashes of defeat, France’s greatest survivor, Talleyrand, prepares to restore his beaten country to the forefront of European politics. Amid this upheaval, discontented Bonapartists plot to restore the eagle whose shadow still lies across the continent. Attending King Louis, Captain Nathaniel Drinkwater is alarmed to receive secret intelligence that a new and imminent threat exists to peace.

A stirring tale of life aboard ship during the last great days of the Merchant Navy New junior officer Laddie signs on to the cargo liner Antigone on a voyage to the Far East. He finds himself part of a crew who all have their own stories to tell about life at sea. Over the course of the eventful journey to Hong Kong and Singapore, he comes to know them all, from Captain ‘China Dick’ Richards and the experienced and remote Master to the vulnerable young radio officer Sparks and the deck crew. Little does Laddie know, but this voyage will be a turning point for Antigone and all who sail in her... Perfect for fans of Patrick O’Brian and Dewey Lambdin, Richard Woodman draws upon his six years of service on ships to evocatively capture life aboard.

A wartime attack on a defenceless merchant convoy brings the intent of the Admiralty into question. Was it merely a bad tactical decision or something more sinister? Why did Admiral Dudley Pound scatter Convoy PQ17 in the Barents Sea on the evening of 4th July 1942? Most of the merchant ships were destroyed while not a single one of the warships assigned to protect them was lost, casting a long shadow over subsequent events. Why did Pound act as he did? And why was this information an official secret for so long? It might have remained so, but for the revelations of a dead man talking. A thrilling tale of World War II from Richard Woodman, perfect for fans of Patrick O’Brian and Dewey Lambdin

Captain John Mackinnon and his ship, the Matthew Flinders, are embarking on their last voyage. Both endangered species, they symbolize the irreversible, quiet decline of the British merchant fleet. But this journey to Hong Kong will prove to be anything but quiet. Internal tensions among the crew provoke unrest and lead to a navigation error, steering them right into the violent, destructive path of Typhoon David. Suddenly the crew of the Matthew Flinders are no longer fighting for their livelihood, but for their very lives. Yet on the same sears, other lives are at stake as well. When Mackinnon feels compelled to rescue a boatload of Vietnamese refugees fleeing to Hong Kong, he sets off an explosive chain of events that will lead to mutiny, confrontation with Hong Kong authorities, and the greatest challenge of his career.

A study and reassessment of the major World War II battle in the South Atlantic between the British and German navies. The Battle of the River Plate was the first major naval confrontation of the Second World War, and it is one of the most famous. The dramatic sea fight between the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee and the British cruisers Exeter, Ajax, and Achilles off the coast of South America caught the imagination in December 1939. Over the last sixty years the episode has come to be seen as one of the classics of naval warfare. Yet the accepted interpretation of events has perhaps been taken for granted and is ripe for reassessment, and that is one of the aims of Richard Woodman’s enthralling new study. Praise for The Battle of the River Plate: A Grand Delusion “This author has made it all so very riveting, it really is a book which is hard to put down until finished.” —Royal Geographical Society “Graphic, thought provoking—highly recommended.” —Britain at War

The Sea Warriors is the true story of the great frigate captains of the Nelsonic Royal Navy who spent long and arduous years away from their homes fighting for king and country, to win and hold control of the seas. Richard Woodman skilfully dissects the events of the war years, focussing on the cruiser war, that war between opposing frigates which entailed the blockade of enemy ports, the interception of enemy trade and the protection of Britain's merchant ships. The whole magnificent sweep of this great struggle is set against its political background of the Napoleonic wars and the sea war with America. With this narrative come an extraordinary array of young, daring and hugely skilled frigate captains whose ability to grasp the chances offered by war made them household names in this savage age. Some, like Warren, Pellew, Cochrane and Collingwood, are still renowned; others are here rescued from under the shadow of Nelson as the author recounts their brave and brilliant exploits. rnAs well as the thrilling accounts of sea battles and single-ship actions, the author describes the darker side to life at sea – the constant danger and harsh discipline, the wearying monotony of sea-keeping, the scourges of disease and the occasional outbreaks of mutiny. All this is brought together in a stirring narrative by one of the country's finest naval writers.

The notorious uprising on the Bounty has been elevated to iconic status by Hollywood, yet Richard Woodman describes it here as a mere 'pup' among mutinies. Captain Bligh was neither tyrant nor sadist -- whereas Pigot of the Hermione was both. Woodman brings a seaman's perspective to this compelling history, which stretches from Magellan's handling of an uprising on his great voyage of discovery in 1519 to the 'sordid crimes' that mutinies had become four centuries later.