Penguin Books Australia

In 1629, the Batavia was wrecked on a coral archipelago fifty miles from the Australian continent. Most of the people on board surtvived, only to become victims of a visionary psychopath who, with the help of a dozen followers, organised a methodical massacre of the hapless community.

5,000 years of maritime adventure in a new compact format.

From the earliest dugout canoes and the boats of the Ancient Egyptians to the most technologically advanced battleships and cruise-liners, this is the ultimate guide to every aspect of the ship, and those who have sailed them.

'MANY BRAVE THINGS WERE DONE THAT NIGHT, BUT NONE WERE MORE BRAVE THAN THE MEN PLAYING MINUTE AFTER MINUTE AS THE SHIP SETTLED QUIETLY LOWER AND LOWER IN THE SEA.'

Two ships set out in search of a missing continent: the St Jean-Baptiste, a French merchant ship commanded by Jean de Surville, and the Endeavour , a small British naval vessel captained by James Cook.

A rousing history of the world's first dominant navy and the towering empire it built

In producing this remarkable book, McHugh has made extensive...

'Joughin casually tightened his lifebelt. Then he glanced at his watch - it said 2.15. As an afterthought, he took it off and stuck it into his hip pocket. He was beginning to puzzle over his position when he felt the stern dropping under his feet - it was like taking an elevator. As the sea closed over the stern, Joughin stepped off into the water.'

On 14th April 1912, just before midnight...

'The essential history . . . of the reason why men kept coming back to this frozen wasteland . . . deploys a lifetime of research and distinguished scholarship . . . Superb'  
BBC HISTORY

For centuries navigators dreamed of finding the Northwest Passage – the route over the top of North America that promised a short cut to the fabulous wealth of Asia, for anyone who managed to...

The names William Bligh, Fletcher Christian, and the Bounty have excited the popular imagination for more than two hundred years. The story of this famous mutiny has many beginnings and many endings but they all intersect on an April morning in 1789 near the island known today as Tonga. That morning, William Bligh and eighteen surly seamen were expelled from the Bounty and began what would be the greatest...

In 1820 the Nantucket whaleship Essex, thousands of miles from home in the South Pacific, was rammed by an angry sperm whale. The Essex sank, leaving twenty crew members drifting in three small open boats for ninety days. The Titanic story of its day, the incident also provided the inspiration for Melville's Moby-Dick...