Edited by I.C.B. Dear and Peter Kemp
Published by Oxford University Press (Second Edition 2005)
This tome is compiled by an international team of experts who have created the most comprehensive and authoritative reference book of its kind. It covers every aspect of the sea and the vessels which sail upon them.
With more than 2,600 A-Z entries including exploration, steam propulsion, sail, tidal power, marine wildlife, archaeology, piracy, seamanship, and ship preservation.
It is complemented with hundreds of detailed line drawings and photographs.
I’ve used this book for years as a quick check on the difference between ‘barque’ and ‘barquentine’, ‘weighing anchor’ or getting ‘underway’, and ‘marline’ or ‘marlin’.
As one reviewer in the Daily Telegraph said: ‘It’s a beguiling book. Open to check a point and you can be lost for hours.’