Off-mint

Maud Berridge (1844–1907) made five voyages with her husband, Master Mariner Henry Berridge, from Gravesend to Melbourne and back. One of these, on the clipper Superb, was a trip of 14 months, rounding both the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn, and stopping off in Polynesia and San Francisco. Interweaving Maud’s diaries with contemporary reports and a modern commentary, her great-granddaughter has assembled an account of a Victorian captain’s wife’s adventures at sea.

HMS Dreadnought ushered in a new era of battleship design in 1906 and these ships dominated naval warfare until aircraft carriers superseded them, some examples continuing in service until the end of the 20th century. Organized by nation, type and class, this reference work describes each vessel, and the sister-ships of its class, with specification tables, diagrams of ships in profile, career histories and photographs showing hull and deck details and ships in action.

In 2015, an American cargo ship went down with all hands near the eye of Hurricane Joaquin. Drawing on the conversations of the crew, captured by the ship's data recorder, this analysis of the tragedy recounts the crisis as it unfolded on board, investigates the captain's decision to steer directly into the storm and reviews the shortcomings of the merchant fleet and the increased threat represented by climate change. Off-mint.

The Royal Navy's first ironclad warship, the steam-powered HMS Warrior was a turning point in naval architecture and the most powerful vessel afloat in 1860. This analysis of the frigate employs many photographs of the restored ship to explore its design, its fitting out and the living conditions of its crew, as well as outlining Warrior's service history and describing its restoration in the 1970s.

A scenic trip ‘doon the watter’, from Glasgow to the Argyllshire coast, was a popular excursion from the late 19th century to the 1960s. This pictorial history, with 185 captioned old photographs, postcards and timetables, surveys the charms of the Clyde steamers, the river banks and the attractions on the coast and Kintyre peninsula.

Rowbotham first launched a tanker service in 1879 and developed a significant coastal fleet during the 20th century. The name eventually disappeared under new ownership in the 1990s.

This study of shipbuilding on the Ribble is essentially an account of the Lytham Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, which built vessels in the town between 1889 and 1954.

The task of landing the British Expeditionary Force in France was achieved over a period of ten months and involved over 2,000 vessels. To retrieve the men from Dunkirk an unprecedented assortment of naval and private craft was assembled. This detailed analysis of the operations includes lists of all ships known to have taken part, including civilian motor launches, fishing boats and yachts.

From the Solway Firth down the West coast to Hartland Point in Devon, Smylie explores types of fishing ranging from ancient weirs to modern trawling, and catches including cockles, shrimps, scallops, salmon, eels and herring.

From inkwell lobster pots in Cornwall, this volume travels along England’s south coast, through harbours including Newlyn, Brixham, Hasting and Brighton, with oyster fishing under sail and pilchard seining among the fishing methods described.

This volume covers the types of fishing, the particularly fine boats and the ‘fisher folk’ of the west coast of Scotland down to the Solway Firth in photographs that mostly date back to the days of herring fishing.

Brunel's initial designs for a sister steamship for the Great Western called for a wooden hull and paddle wheel propulsion, but his switch to a screw propeller and iron construction made the new ship a world first. This biography of the vessel looks beyond the innovation of its design and short-lived transatlantic service to its long career sailing between Liverpool and Australia, later cargo duties and eventual scuttling in the Falkland Islands, before salvage and restoration in the 1970s.

This exploration of regalia and its numerous accessories, extensively illustrated with paintings and photographs, demonstrates how clothing reflects social structure as well as individual rank and identity. It examines the art of ‘power dressing’ through the ages and around the world, from the feathers and pigments of ‘naked’ societies to the cufflinks and suits of modern global leaders, and provides a comprehensive view of the sociological aspect of clothing.

Designer John Willis Griffiths’s conclusion that a sailing ship built for speed required ‘a sharp flared hollow and concave bow’ and a stern designed for ‘minimal drag’, revolutionized shipping well into the 20th century. This erudite history of the clipper, the fastest of all merchant sailing ships, considers different designs, including Yankee, Australian and tea clippers, as well as their cargoes and trade routes, with a focus on the treacherous seas around Cape Horn.

An experienced hobby sailor, painter Francis Smitheman brings his own sense of the sea as well as extensive historical research and a profound respect for the classical masters to his maritime pictures. This collection of his oil paintings, completed over a period of 30 years, contains a series of pictures of Nelson’s battles, scenes from the Pool of London in the age of sail, polar exploration vessels and imagined historic scenes at famous ports.