Overview

The most comprehensive and authoritative reference book of its kind, The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea is a completely revised and updated edition of a classic volume that was first published in 1976 to huge acclaim, hailed as 'a beguiling book' (Daily Telegraph), 'marvellous' (The Times), and 'totally absorbing' (Financial Times). It brings together more than 2,600 entries on every imaginable aspect of the seas and the vessels that sail on them, from shipbuilding, yachting, diving, and marine mammals, to tidal power, piracy, and the literature and language of the sea. This second edition provides significant new material on topics that have come to prominence in recent times, such as oceanography and marine archaeology: key contributions on these subjects from marine expert Dr Martin Angel at Southampton Oceanography Centre include climate change, environmental issues, marine pollution, and marine wildlife. Among the many brand new entries to this edition are up-to-the-minute articles on underwater vehicles, tsunamis, warfare at sea, marine pollution, the Economic Exclusion Zone, and ship preservation. This Companion also includes authoritative and fascinating entries on maritime history: its naval battles, including Pearl Harbor and Trafalgar; its great ships, from Noah's Ark and the Bounty to the Titanic and the Mary Rose; and its most famous individuals, both real and fictional, including Christopher Columbus, Horatio Nelson, and Robinson Crusoe. Entries are fully cross-referenced, and the text is illustrated with over 260 detailed drawings, making it more accessible than ever before.

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9780198606161

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Reviews

The 2005 edition builds on the sure foundations of the 1976 by updating much of the original material without destroying its essential character. Neatly illustrated and meticulously researched, the Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea is a reference work of uniformly high academic quality. It is not, though, a book to open lightly. As a thief of a sailor's time, it probably has few modern equals. Rish consulting it to look up some puzzling piece of marine terminology and, before you realise what has happened, the fascinating text will have led you into areas of maritime lore you never even knew existed; several hours will have passed, the fire will have gone out and one's spouse will long since have gone to bed. Richard Shelton, TLS

Author Information

I. C. B. Dear (general editor of the second edition) was educated at the Nautical College, Pangbourne and the Royal Naval College, Greenwich. He is the general editor of the highly-acclaimed Oxford Companion to the Second World War and the compiler of Oxford English: A Guide to the Language. The late Peter Kemp (general editor of the first edition) was educated at the Royal Naval Colleges of Osborne and Dartmouth. He published widely on naval, military, and yachting subjects, and wrote several children's novels.

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