The ship asunder : a maritime history of Britain in eleven vessels /Tom Nancollas.

"If Britain's seafaring history were embodied in a single ship, she might have a prehistoric prow, a mast plucked from a Victorian steamship, the hull of a modest fishing vessel, the propeller of an ocean liner and an anchor made of stone. We might call her Asunder, and, fantastical though she is, we could in fact find her today, scattered in fragments across the country's creeks and coastlines. In The Ship Asunder, Tom Nancollas goes in search of eleven relics that together tell the story of Britain at sea. From the swallowtail prow of a Bronze Age vessel to a stone ship moored at a Baroque quayside, each one illuminates a distinct phase of our adventures upon the waves, and each brings us close to the people, places and vessels that made a maritime nation. Weaving together stories of naval architects and shipwrights, fishermen and merchants, shipwrecks and superstition, pilgrimage, trade, slavery and war, The Ship Asunder surveys Britain's seafaring tradition in all its glory and tragedy, triumph and disaster, and asks how we might best memorialise it as it vanishes from our shores."--Provided by the publisher.