Ship - The Epic Story of Maritime Adventure [Hardcover]

Brian Lavery (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Smithsonain
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0756650232
• ISBN-13: 978-0756650230
• Product Dimensions: 11.7 x 9.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,545,046 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting Writing, Beautiful Illustrations, November 22, 2004

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ship: The Epic Story of Maritime Adventure (Hardcover)

This profusely illustrated book covers boats from the earliest Pre-historical times until the present. It includes everything from birch bark canoes to the latest commercial and military vessels, junks to dhows, clipper ships to cruise liners and boats built especially for the Americas cup. More than a coffee table book, the descriptions that go with the photographs enhance and explain the photographs.

In the section on the First Boats, there are drawings amd photographs from both ancient times and modern. From here the story continues and reflects the leastest research. For instance:

There are thirteen photographs of the Vasa, the Swedish ship that rolled over and sank on its maiden voyage in 1628. As the book puts it, this was "the largest and most elaborately decorated flagship, Sweden's VASA sailed into this arena for a few minutes." This is, of course the ship that was found and raised in 1961, teaching us a lot about 17th Century construction.

Also included is the story of Zheng He, the Chinese explorer who made seven discovery voyages in the early 1400's covering some 35,000 miles.

The drawing of the Hunley, the Confederate submarine reflect the latest discoveries made since it was found and raised only a few years ago.

All in all, this book is what you'd expect. Interesting writing, beautiful illustrations.

21 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Nice coffee-table book, March 28, 2006

By 

Merchant Marine Captain (Europe) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ship: The Epic Story of Maritime Adventure (Hardcover)

I have all titles written by Brian Lavery. Considering his other books this one is a great disappointment. The book is most valuable for nice period illustrations but the text is rather superficial and sometimes confused and misleading, with numerous mistakes and omissions. Although it is obvious that text covering such a wide period cannot be comprehensive the book could definitely be written much better.

My some remarks:
Ancient times described too general and too insufficient, same history of pirates. Too little on modern merchant ships. To find out the genealogy of e.g. frigate or corvette is cumbersome and unsatisfactory.

Ship plans till 19th century were not drawn in details at all as wrongly stated on page 126.

Photos of some poor models should not be presented in such an ambitious book - e.g. pages 49,50, 244, 245.

Some pictures belong to another century than presented or are wrongly described - e.g. pp. 93, 96, 102-103. Picture of the steering wheel on page 123 is rather horrible.

What I am missing - more pictures of artefacts from various wrecks such Mary Rose, Bremen cog, Swedish Kronan etc.
Almost nothing on sail training ships - and the KOBENHAVEN presented in the Leisure and Sports Craft section, p.377?


Grand and beautifully illustrated coffee-table book, adds nothing to scholarship. Highly recommended for amateurs/armchair sailors and kids.

Captain K.L.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gorgeous book; historically informative, September 25, 2005

By 

P. Gilbert (Oregon, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Ship: The Epic Story of Maritime Adventure (Hardcover)

If you're captivated by all things nautical, then this is the book for you! The text is replete with gorgeous images that track the historical progression of ships (boats, submarines, etc.). The text is informative, interesting and accessibly presented (the book is also quite skimmable for time-pressed pleasure). I have yet to find a comparable text, and everyone who sees this book is immediately taken with its wonderful photos.