Looks at how schooners, brigantines, colliers, and shallops were constructed during the latter part of the eighteenth century, and discusses their use in seafaring

In The Merchant Ship in the British Atlantic, 1600—1800, Phillip Reid refutes the long-held assumption that merchant ship technology in the British Atlantic during the two centuries of its development was static for all intents and purposes, and that whatever incremental changes took place in it were inconsequential to the development of the British Empire and its offshoots. Drawing on a unique combination of evidence from both traditional and unconventional sources, Phillip Reid shows how merchants, shipwrights, and mariners used both proven principles and adaptive innovations in hulls, rigs, and steering systems to manage high physical and financial risks. Listen also to the podcast where the author is interviewed about the book for New Books Network and the podcast with Liz Covart for Ben Franklin’s World by clicking here.

Up and down the Eastern seaboard during the 1850s, American shipyards constructed numerous large wooden merchant sailing vessels that formed the backbone of the commercial shipping industry. This comprehensive volume appraises in minute detail the construction of these ships, outlining basic design criteria and enumerating and examining every plank and piece of timber involved in the process, including the keel, frames, hull and deck planking, stanchions, knees, deck houses, bulworks, railings, interior structures and arrangements. More than 150 illustrations illuminate the size, shape, location and pertinent specifics of each item. Complete with a glossary of contemporary industry terms, this work represents the definitive study of the mid-nineteenth century's great American-built square rigged ships.

The greatest shipwreck disaster in the history of the Cayman Islands The story has been passed through generations for more than two centuries. Details vary depending on who is doing the telling, but all refer to this momentous maritime event as the Wreck of the Ten Sail. Sometimes misunderstood as the loss of a single ship, it was in fact the wreck of ten vessels at once, comprising one of the most dramatic maritime disasters in all of Caribbean naval history. Surviving historical documents and the remains of the wrecked ships in the sea confirm that the narrative is more than folklore. It is a legend based on a historical event in which HMS Convert, formerly L’Inconstante, a recent prize from the French, and 9 of her 58-ship merchant convoy sailing from Jamaica to Britain, wrecked on the jagged eastern reefs of Grand Cayman in 1794. The incident has historical significance far beyond the boundaries of the Cayman Islands. It is tied to British and French history during the French Revolution, when these and other European nations were competing for military and commercial dominance around the globe. The Wreck of the Ten Sail attests to the worldwide distribution of European war and trade at the close of the eighteenth century. In Cayman’s 1794 Wreck of the Ten Sail: Peace, War, and Peril in the Caribbean, Margaret E. Leshikar-Denton focuses on the ships, the people, and the wreck itself to define their place in Caymanian, Caribbean, and European history. This well-researched volume weaves together rich oral folklore accounts, invaluable supporting documents found in archives in the United Kingdom, Jamaica, and France, and tangible evidence of the disaster from archaeological sites on the reefs of the East End.

‘The inventions, the innovations, the stories, the surprises. A combination of history, reference and entertainment – something for every seafarer and many others too.’ - Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence. People have been sailing for thousands of years, but we’ve come some distance from longboats and clippers. How did we arrive here? In fifty tales of inventors and innovations, Sails, Skippers and Sextants looks at the history of one of our most enjoyable pastimes, from the monarch who pioneered English yachting to the engineer who invented sailboards. The stories are sometimes inspiring, usually amusing and often intriguing – so grab your lifejacket, it’s going to be quite an adventure.

What was a merchant seamans life like in the past, what experiences would he have had, what were the ships like that he sailed in, and what risks did he run? Was he shipwrecked, rewarded for bravery, or punished? And how can you find out about an ancestor who was a member of the long British maritime tradition? Simon Wills concise and informative historical guide takes the reader and researcher through the fascinating story of Britains merchant service, and he shows you how to trace individual men and women and gain an insight into their lives. In a series of short, information-packed chapters, he explains the expansion of Britains global maritime trade and the fleets of merchant ships that sustained it in peace and war. He describes the lives, duties and tribulations of the generations of crews who sailed in these ships, whether as ordinary seamen or as officers, stewards, engineers and a myriad of other roles. In addition, he identifies the websites you can explore, the archives, records and books you can read, and the places you can visit in order to gain an understanding of what your seagoing ancestor did and the world he knew. Simon Wills practical handbook will be essential reading and reference for anyone who is keen to discover for themselves the secrets of our maritime past and of the crewmembers and ships that were part of it.

Winch has written the first full-length biography of James Forten, a hero of African American history and one of the most remarkable men in 19th-century America. Born into a free black family in 1766, Forten served in the Revolutionary War as a teenager. By 1810 he had earned the distinction of being the leading sailmaker in Philadelphia. Soon after Forten emerged as a leader in Philadelphia's black community and was active in a wide range of reform activities. Especially prominent in national and international antislavery movements, he served as vice-president of the American Anti-Slavery Society and became close friends with William Lloyd Garrison to whom he lent money to start up the Liberator. His family were all active abolitionists and a granddaughter, Charlotte Forten, published a famous diary of her experiences teaching ex-slaves in South Carolina's Sea Islands during the Civil War. This is the first serious biography of Forten, who stands beside Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, and Martin Luther King, Jr., in the pantheon of African Americans who fundamentally shaped American history.