Ship History

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The shocking true story of the USS Houston, FDR’s legendary lost cruiser, and the epic saga of the survivors who faced one of World War II’s most brutal ordeals—from the acclaimed author of The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors “Captivating [and]...

America’s most decorated warship of World War II, Enterprise was constantly engaged against the Japanese Empire, earning the title “the fightingest ship” in the navy. Her career was eventful, vital, and short. Commissioned in 1938, her bombers sank a submarine just ten days after the Pearl Harbor attack, claiming the first Japanese vessel lost in the war.

What happens when Blackbeard meets Jesse James? When a monstrous storm tears open time itself over Nassau Harbor, Blackbeard, Anne Bonny, and Calico Jack Rackham are hurled from the Golden Age of Piracy into the brutal world of the American Wild West. San Francisco, 1873. Six-shooters rule the frontier. Outlaws rob the rails. The legends of the Caribbean mean little in a century ruled by gunslingers. To survive, the crew of the Queen Anne's Revenge must trade cutlasses for revolvers, outrun the pirate hunter who followed them through time, and chase a fortune across a lawless frontier. But ...

Uncover the chilling truth behind maritime history's most famous unsolved mystery in this atmospheric investigation. Whether you need a captivating story for your daily commute or want to engage your curious mind on a long road trip, this exploration of doomed flights and vanished ships delivers...

NATIONAL BESTSELLER An NPR Best Book of the Year “Gorgeous.... With her trademark passion, wit, and fierce feminism, Natalie Haynes gives much-needed voice to the silenced women of the Trojan War.”—Madeline Miller, author of Circe Shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, a gorgeous...

In a chilling exploration of a nearly forgotten chapter of history, Marcus Rediker delves into the dark depths of slave ships in the 18th century. In this widely praised history of an infamous institution, award-winning scholar Marcus Rediker shines a light into the darkest corners of the...

"Ryōma!" tells the life story of Sakamoto Ryōma, one of the great figures in the turmoil that engulfed Japan in the years before the 1868 Meiji Restoration. The novel is a masterwork by the prolific historical novelist Shiba Ryōtarō and has sold more than 24 million copies in Japan since publication in 1966—and still counting! The novel has everything: a winning main character, an action-packed plot, swordfights, and romance, but it is also a fascinating, easy-to-digest history lesson about Japan’s response to the shocking arrival of United States Commodore Matthew Perry’s “...

They survived capture—only to be imprisoned aboard ships designed for death. During the Second World War, tens of thousands of Allied prisoners of war and civilian internees were transported across the Japanese Empire aboard vessels that became known as hell ships. Packed into dark, airless cargo holds, the prisoners endured suffocating heat, starvation, disease, dehydration, beatings, and conditions so overcrowded that men could barely sit or breathe. There were few toilets, almost no medical supplies, and little hope of escape. Yet the greatest danger often came from above. Because many...

⛏️ REVISED AND EXPANDED EDITION! ⛏️ ⛏️ THE MOST EPIC AND EXPANSIVE NORSE MYTHOLOGY BIBLE ON AMAZON!⛏️ ⛏️ DOUBLE THE PAGES OF OTHER BOOKS!⛏️ This sprawling thirty-chapter book includes all major tales of Norse Mythology. From Thor and mischievous Loki to the twilight of the gods known as Ragnarök. Also included is the decryption of Runes, exploring Spells, Ásatrú, European history, warfare, ancient inspirations, to even expansive pages from the ancient book known as Poetic Edda. Each chapter will include stunning paintings to kindle the ancient Viking dreams... To ...

A definitive, sweeping account of the Underground Railroad’s long-overlooked maritime origins, from a pre-eminent scholar of Atlantic history and the award-winning author of The Slave Ship As many as 100,000 enslaved people fled successfully from the horrors of bondage in the antebellum South...

*A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice* From celebrated Yale professor Valerie Hansen, a “vivid” and “astonishingly comprehensive account [that] casts world history in a brilliant new light” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) and shows how bold explorations and daring trade...

The future has entered World War II—and the enemy is learning how to fight it. After the USS Gerald R. Ford was thrown back into 1942, Rear Admiral Diane Kessler used the most powerful carrier strike group on Earth to change the course of the war. But every victory has revealed something. Germany is no longer reacting blindly. A secret intelligence staff is studying American radio traffic, recovered technology, captured equipment, and every weapon the Ford has fired. New traps are being designed for aircraft that should not exist. The enemy now understands that the carrier’s missiles ...

A Best Book of the Year from The Observer Narrated by the New York Times bestselling author Natalie Haynes herself, this audiobook is an extraordinary reimagining of the myth of Medea. This is what no one tells you, in the songs sung about Jason and the Argo. This part of his quest has been...

The frozen wilderness of the Arctic captivated and mystified voyagers and explorers in the 1800s, driven by greed for riches, fame, and the search for the elusive Northwest Passage. Delve into the jaw-dropping courage and awe-inspiring expeditions from the Golden Age of Arctic exploration with "Frozen Frontier" Follow the footsteps of heroic explorers and their courageous penetrations into an unknown world of mammoth ice floes, terrifying polar bears, and bone-chilling cold. Witness their incredible triumphs and heartbreaking tragedies, and discover the untold stories of the earliest ...

Do you think the ocean is a dangerous place? Yes, it can be. Titanic…Amoco Cadiz…Herald of Free Enterprise…Exxon Valdez…every shipwreck tells a story. Veteran sea captain Beetashok Chatterjee reveals the stories behind 13 of the greatest civilian maritime disasters, outside the realms of war, that shook the world. Not just for the number of lives lost, but in some cases the damage caused to the environment and livelihoods, or the media attention those incidents garnered. Allow him to take you back in time and on the high seas, where you can watch and learn from these disasters—...

“If you read only one American history book this summer . . . make it David S. Reynolds’s Two Ships.” —George Will, Washington Post “Brilliant, provocative . . . Essential reading for today’s polarized times.” —Henry Louis Gates, Jr. "A dazzling survey of three centuries of...

Hoist the mizzenmast and batten down those bloody hatches: Pirates! Scoundrels Who Shook the World tells the hilarious-but-true adventures of history’s most amazing pirates.

""As thrilling as any tale from the heroic age of exploration. ... Bound’s account is a triumph. The storytelling is piano-wire taut, the writing saturated with polar moodiness."" ― Sunday Times The extraordinary story of how the Endurance, Ernest Shackleton's legendary lost ship, was found...

In April 1956, a refitted oil tanker carried 58 shipping containers from Newark to Houston. From that modest beginning, container shipping developed into a huge industry that made the boom in global trade possible. The Box tells the dramatic story of the container's creation, the decade of struggle before it was widely adopted, and the sweeping economic consequences of the sharp fall in transportation costs that containerization brought about.

What if some of history’s most unbelievable sea monsters were inspired by creatures that actually existed? For centuries, sailors crossed enormous stretches of ocean with no idea what might be moving beneath them. Strange shapes became sea serpents, giant tentacles became Krakens, decomposing carcasses became prehistoric monsters, and every mysterious creature that washed ashore gave people another reason to fear the deep. Strange But True: The Weird History of Sea Monsters dives into the bizarre true history behind some of the ocean’s most famous legends, sightings, hoaxes, and ...