The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea

The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea is a must to answer all the "out there question" I get each day on my Adventure Tours.If I don't know the answer Oxford does.A book I use ever week . P GOTELL TRANQUILITY COVE ADVENTURES P.E.I. CANADA

Every time I pick up this book I find myself being drawn into reading far more than was either planned or expected. It is a beguiling book because each fact explained seems to lead to another which must also be found and read. But, in turning the pages one is constantly hijacked by something of interest which has simply caught the eye - and so it continues. Laid out in true encyclopaedic form, this book contains almost one thousand pages of facts - many of which are supported by black and white graphics or photographs. The only exception is the colour used right at the end to show; Ships flags, ships lights, Buoys and Buoyage - all of which are, of course, wholly dependant on colour in order to be fully explained. The bookshelf of anyone engaged in the research of ships and shipwrecks would be empty without a copy of this excellent and most useful publication. NM

With an encyclopedic format, this book provides the reader with a wide array of very well written definitions, explanations and anecdotal references to all things nautical. It also includes a significant amount of biographical information on sailors of historical renown and those of more recent times. It is written in such a way as to be captivating on its own - I often find myself looking up a nautical reference and then spending many more minutes or even hours engrossed in the book because of the other items I see when looking up the first. In each entry, the terms used to describe the entry are asterisked if those terms are further defined elsewhere in the book. I found this extremely useful for knowing where else to look for more information related to the particular entry reading. An excellent reference book for novice and expert.

I am a lay reader, not a student of nautical history, and I found this guide absolutely essential while reading the Aubrey-Maturin novels of Patrick O'Brian.

If you are a nautical junkie like I am, you'll love this book! As far as I have found, this is the definitive reference on nautical history, sea battles, terminology and all things "wet". It is my favorite bedside reader to learn those arcane facts that you never thought that you would need to know, but once you do- you're glad you did!