Other Books

These are a selection of books available from the Royal Naval Museum Shop,.
If a book you require is not on our website please contact us, lots of other titles are available.!!

Which woman made the first solo transatlantic crossing? Who saved thousands of lives with the invention of navigation lights? What is the story behind the invention of the compass?

Many of us know the story of modern sailing pioneers - Dame Ellen MacArthur and Francis Chichester, Claire Francis and the challengers of the Americas Cup - but what about those unsung heroes who invented the mechanisms and technology which enabled sailors to speed across the oceans and navigate more safely. From cloud classification and screw propellers to radio telephones and the measurement of tides, this collection of stories will inspire and intrigue sailors everywhere.

Unrivalled in detail, this book chronicles the great naval war in history, day-by-day across every theatre of war. Surface, underwater, naval-air and amphibious campaigns are all covered, and periodic assessments sum up the strategic situation in the worldwide theatres.Revised edition.

Hardback By John Blake

The charts of war that have informed and illustrated the war at sea.

Hardback Book
From protection from gas attack to preparing a safe refuge and even first aid for bomb victims, this book is a mine of invaluable advice for the Blitz-weary householder. An excellent hardback reproduction of a 1938 publication.

By Pitkin
This illustrated text gives an insight into our nautical heritage - from Julius Caesar's expedition to our shores in 55BC to the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar in 2005, encompassing the events, sea-going vessels and generations of seafarers who have shaped our history.

By Pitkin
A timeline through the Kings ans Queens of England.

Hardback By Jean Marteilhe
210 Pages
This remarkable memoir tells of the miseries of Jean Marteilhe of Bergerac, a Protestant condemned to the Galleys of France for his Religion , who, after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, attempted, like so many French Huguenots, to escape to the more sympathetic Protestant countries bordering France. In 1700, heading through the Ardennes towards Charleroi, he was captured by French Dragoons and thrown into gaol. In 1707 he then found himself, like so many Huguenots, condemned to serve in the French Mediterranean galleys. Little is known of life as a galley slave on these oared vessels. Certainly no accounts have come down to us from ancient Greece or Rome, though a little is known from the time of the Crusades. So Marteilhe s racy account represents the only authentic record of the miseries of a galley slave who experienced all the horrors of whips and chains and the dreaded bastinado - foot whipping. For six years he pulled his oar, often seeing friends and co-religionists lashed - sometimes to death - under the whips of the overseers. He himself sustained almost fatal injuries in a bloody engagement with the British off the mouth of the Thames before being released under a general amnesty in 1713. Galley Slave brings vividly to life the sufferings and conditions on the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century galleys and is a unique and unforgettable account.

Hardback By Scholl
Toy boats aren't just for kids, as evidenced by this spectacular volume of photographs detailing highlights from the 500-plus on permanent exhibit at the Forbes Galleries in New York City. Sport, military, commercial, and luxury craft are represented in a stunning pageant of nautical styles. The Forbes Galleries in New York City include exhibits of the fabled Fabergé Easter eggs and jewelry, toy boats, miniature soldiers, presidential manuscripts and fine art. An introduction by Robert L. Forbes, who helped assemble the Forbes toy boat collection with his father, Malcolm S. Forbes, explains how the collection originated, grew and gained international prestige.

Hardback By Tim Lynch
They called it 'the slaughter of the innocents'. The barely trained and poorly equipped men of the Labour Divisions were never meant to fight, but when the German blitzkreig sliced through the Allied armies in 1940, they were all that stood in the way of the annihilation of the British Expeditionary Force. While the Allied generals bickered amongst themselves, all command and control lost, their men died to buy precious time as the main army fell back towards Dunkirk. Long after the last of the rescue ships reached home, the men of the Labour Divisions fought on. That summer saw a thousand small acts of heroism, from the officer with multiple wounds who refused to leave his command, to the lone infantryman who held off a German panzer with a single anti-tank gun; refusing to surrender, he died at his post, alone. Based on original research, official reports, diaries and personal accounts, Dunkirk 1940 reveals the crucial and largely forgotten heroism of the amateur soldiers, in particular those of 137th Infantry Brigade, during the chaos and terror of the fall of France.

Hardback By Beth Derbyshire
Message, a semaphore message of remembrance, was transmitted along the River Thames on Remembrance Sunday, 2005: War turns us to stone. In remembrance we shine and rise to new days. This profusely illustrated book tells the story of Beth Derbyshires performance artwork, as well as providing reflections on war and remembrance.

Paperback Book By Dilip Sarkar
The story of the sinking of the HMS Royal Oak by German submarine which cost the lives of 833 Royal Navy sailors. HMS Royal Oak was a Revenge-class battleship of the British Royal Navy, infamously torpedoed at anchor by the German submarine U-47 on 14 October 1939. Royal Oak was anchored at Scapa Flow in Orkney, Scotland when she became the first of the five Royal Navy battleships and battle cruisers sunk in the Second World War. The loss of life was heavy: of Royal Oak's complement of 1,234 men and boys, 833 were killed that night or died later of their wounds. The raid made an immediate celebrity and war hero out of the German U-boat commander, Gunther Prien, who became the first submarine officer to be awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. To the British, the raid demonstrated that the Germans were capable of bringing the naval war to their home waters, and the shock resulted in rapidly arranged changes to dockland security. Now lying upside-down in 30 m of water with her hull 5 m beneath the surface, Royal Oak is a designated war grave.

Paperback Book
The Home Guard was formed in May 1940, when the dark clouds of war rolled over Britain and the nation stood alone, threatened with a Nazi invasion. Within six weeks of a radio appeal for a new civilian army to guard the Home Front, a staggering 1.5 million men had enrolled for service, covering every city, town and village in the country. Despite initial deficiencies in the provision of training and equipment, the Home Guard later developed into a cohesive force and one of impressive diversity. David Carroll draws on the personal accounts of those men and eventually women who served, to reveal what it was really like to spend long nights on duty watching for the disguised enemy parachutists to drop on the fields of Britain. He conveys the fighting spirit of the men while examining the Home Guard's contribution to the war effort. Dad's Army is a comprehensive account of the Home Guard - from the early disorganised days of May 1940 until 'Stand Down' at the close of 1944, by which time they had become a force to be reckoned with

Paperback By Simon Ball

Hardback By Graham Drucker
This is the biography of one of the Royal Navy's legendary Fleet Air Arm pilots - Lt Cdr Roy Baker-Falkner. His wartime experiences as a pilot aboard HMS GLORIOUS included preparing for the historic air strike at Taranto and actively searching for the GRAF SPEE.

Hardback By Patrick Delaforce
In 'The Rhine Endeavour', the author chronicles, in meticulously researched detail, the events in Belgium and Holland in 1944 after the successful Normandy Landings, which made up Montgomery's Operation Market Garden, leading up to the Battle for the Rhine near Arnhem.

This pivotal encounter, in particular, is considered from the points of view of all the British divisions involved. To conclude, the author asks one final yet fundamental question. Who won?

WAS: £19.95
Hardback By Stewart Ross
The life and times of an officer and a gentleman. Trained in sail and cutlass, he rose to fly his flag in the revolutionary DREADNOUGHT and play a crucial role in the creation of the Grand Fleet of WWI.

Hardback By George Shelvocke
224 Pages
In 1719, Captain George Shelvocke, a poverty-stricken former Royal Navy officer, was appointed to command
the Speedwell, a ship sent to prey on the Spanish in the Pacific. Off Chile, his ship was wrecked in the Juan Fernandez Islands. Undaunted, he built another vessel and eventually returned to England, via Macao, loaded with Spanish plunder. Back home he was arrested for piracy and defrauding his shareholders. His account is a fast-moving, incident-packed tale exposing the world of 18th-century privateers.

Hardback By John Geddes
John Geddes, a former 2 Para close reconnaissance corporal, SAS hero and veteran of a fistful of hard wars tells the uncut story of the Battle of Goose Green, the decisive battle of the Falklands War. He tells it as he saw it. This is a no-holds barred account of what it was really like to walk into the storm of lead the Argentines hurled at their attackers.

Hardback Book By Richard Dunn
192 Pages
This book offers an overview of the history of the telescope which burst onto the world stage four centuries ago. It traces the development from its invention in the Netherlands in 1608 to its everyday usage in the modern world, both on earth and beyond. Along the way we enter the world of the innovators and adventurers who helped shape the story, discovering how Galileo used the telescope to create his reputation as one of the great scientists of all times, what Isaac Newton was doing with arsenic and why the most advanced telescopes owe so much to the science of spying.

Hardback By Peter Kirsch
224 Pages
The fireship was the guided missile of the sailing era. Packed with incendiary (and sometimes explosive) material, it was aimed at its highly inflammable wooden target by volunteers who bailed out into a boat at the last moment. It often missed, but the panic it invariably caused among crews who generally could not swim and had no method of safely abandoning ship did the job for it - the most famous example being the attack off Gravelines in 1588 which led to the rout of the Spanish Armada.
Although it was a tactic used in antiquity, its successful revival in the Armada campaign led to the adoption of the fireship as an integral part of the fleet. During the seventeenth century increasingly sophisticated 'fireworks' were designed into purpose-built ships, and an advance doctrine was worked out for their employment. Fireship reveals the full impact of the weapon on naval history, looks at the technology and analyses the reasons for its decline.
This is the first history of a potent, much used but little understood weapon.

Hardback By Ken Wharton
304 Pages
Former soldier Ken Wharton witnessed the troubles in Northern Ireland first hand. Bloody Belfast is a fascinating oral history given a chilling insight into the killing grounds of Belfast s streets, based on first hand accounts from the soldiers. The reader will experience the darkned, dangerous streets of the Lower Falls, the Divis Flats and New Lodge alongside the soldiers who braved the hate-filled mobs on the newer, but no less violent streets of the 'Murph, Turf Lodge and Andersonstown.

Hardback By Nikolai Tolstoy
This book is written by Patrick O'Brians stepson and is a definitive account of the early life of the revered author of the Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin novels.

Paperback By Alfred Price
224 Pages

11:15 am, 3 September 1939. The nation gathers around their radios to hear Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain make the announcement they have feared for months: Britain is at war with Germany. Seventy years on from that historic day, this is the definitive history of the build-up to, outbreak and first few months of World War Two, from the events of early 1939, right through to the first war-time Christmas.


Drawing on the Imperial War Museum’s extensive archives, this book will feature the personal stories of real men and women who lived through the startling events of that year, as well as those who were actively involved in the political negotiations and their aftermath.


Featuring numerous photographs and the voices of key players, as well as contributions from well-known figures who were directly affected by the build up to an outbreak of war, this will be a unique document of an extraordinary year in our history.

Paperback By L.T.C Rolt
244 Pages
Describing the course of British engineering throughout the 19th century, this survey gives accounts of such major developments as the building of the railways, the growth of ship-building and the introduction of gas and electricity. It examines the individual achievements of Brunel, Joseph Paxton and Robert Stephenson among others, and explains how industrialisation changed the face of the environment. The book concludes by considering why the Victorians' mood of optimism turned to one of disillusionment. It argues that the Victorians failed to come to terms with the consequences of industrialisation, and that many of the innovations of British engineers found their best expression in other countries.

Hardback By Sarah C Wolfe
120 Pages
This book surveys in full detail all weapons used in the Royal Navy and the new naval service of the United States. It concentrates on development from the American Revolution to the end of the Civil War, the apogee and decline of fighting sail, revealing how British weapons were initially a major source of inspiration for the American navy, an influence which eventually declined as the United States developed its own arms industry. Using surviving examples, artifacts recovered by archeology, and documentary sources, the book devotes individual chapters to shipboard axes, pikes and other pole-arms, and both officers' and enlisted men's swords and cutlasses. It also looks at the decoration of swords and the significance of the motifs used, concluding with a section on the process of manufacturing and the organizations involved.

WAS: £12.99
Paperback By Marquerite Patten
320 Pages
Nostalgic food and facts from 1940-1954, this book takes a look at war time food and rationing and the celebrations that marked the end of the war.
Illustrated with fascinating conteporary photographs and cartoons, with lots of authentic interesting recipes.

Hardback By Iain Gordon
256 Pages
Admiral John Child Purvis was a contemporary naval officer of Nelson, who never disobeyed an order and did his job well. His ability as a fighting commander was proved in a bloody duel between his sloop-of-war and a French corvette during the War of American Independence. As a battleship Captain, he was the first British officer to confront Napoleon Bonaparte, muzzle to muzzle, during the Siege of Toulon. Commanding the Princess Royal and then the London, he was involved in much action in the Mediterranean and served under the legendary Sir John Jervis (later Lord St. Vincent). Later, as a Flag Officer, he rejoined the Mediterranean Fleet first as second-in-command and then as Commander-in-Chief. The culmination of his long and distinguished career at sea was saving the Spanish fleet in Cadiz from capture by the French and preparing the city for siege.

Box set includes Knots & Ropework - ultimate encyclopedia six ropes and cords to help perfect your skills.

Hardback By Peter Johnson
144 Pages
The use of flags afloat and in most maritime situations is a complex and often misunderstood subject, needing to address legal aspects as well as etiquette, and often dictated by tradition, recognition and past naval usage. This book sets out to help the modern flag user, both ashore and afloat to 'get it right'.

Hardback By Chris McNab
128 Pages
Warfare truly entered the industrial age with the invention and adoption of the machine gun. Armed with a machine gun one r two men could potentially hold off a whole company of enemy soldiers, and inflict terrible losses whilst doing so.
The machine gun story describes how Hiram Maxims invention in the late nineteenth century went on to transform the ways in which armies fought. Each stage in the gun development is technically explained, this book never shrinks from the dark history of how machine guns have been used, whether fired from a trench in WW1 or from a helicopter circling over the jungles of Vietnam.

Hardback - 144 pages
Over 60 full colour paintings of famous warships by artist Paul Wright. Each painting is accompanied by a brief history of the ship, the purpose for which she was built and her consequent career at sea.

Paperback By Andrew Norman
192 Pages

Paperback By David Ramsey
320 Pages
Admiral Sir Reginald 'Blinker' Hall, the Director of Naval Intelligence (DNI) for most of the First World War, described as 'a genius in his own sphere and brilliantly successful', was one of the outstanding if largely unrecognized naval leaders of that war. Naval intelligences ability to read and analyse German naval and diplomatic signals on a daily basis was a significant factor in the allied victory. The Germans never realized that their codes had been broken. The revelation of the Zimmermann Telegram, surely one of the most exciting and significant events in the history of intelligence, astutely handled by Hall, was the catalyst that brought America into the war in April 1917. The German unrestricted submarine warfare campaign was then coming dangerously close to cutting Britain's supply routes. The effective interface between intelligence and operations, instituted by Hall and the anti-submarine chief, Admiral Duff, together with the introduction of convoy and with the Royal and US Navies working successfully together, resulted in the defeat of the U-boats. Halls dynamic leadership, talent for lateral thinking and force of personality were essential to these successes. Above all he was endowed with the guile and ruthlessness which kept him one step ahead of a formidable and determined enemy and their widespread espionage and subversion operations.

Hardback By Ruth Ives
160 Pages
During the Second World War, the only way Winston Churchill and his American counterpart Franklin D. Roosevelt could communicate was via a top secret transatlantic telephone link. All other Atlantic telephone cables had been disconnected to prevent the Germans intercepting information. Ruth Ive, then a young stenographer working in the Ministry of Information, had the job of censoring the line, and she spent the rest of the war listening in to the conversations across the Atlantic, ready to cut the line if anything was said that might compromise security. Ruth was sworn to secrecy about her work, and at the end of the war all documentation proving the existence of the telephone line was destroyed. It was not until 1995, when Churchills private files were finally declassified, that Ruth was able to research her story. Now, for the first time, one of the Second World Wars key workers describes the details of her incredible story, and the private conversations of two of the wars most important players can be revealed.

Paperback By Chris Collard
119 Pages
The White Funnel Fleet of P&A Campbell had a long and successful association with England's south coast, with the company's Bristol Channel steamer excursions perhaps being their best-known operation. Covering the period from the 1880s to the 1950s, from the tentative beginnings when brothers Alexander and Peter Campbell took up the challenge of the busy and tempestuous Bristol Channel, this beautifully illustrated history - using many rare and previously unpublished images from the archives of the Paddle Steamer Preservation Society - takes the reader through the golden years of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, the difficult years of the 1920s and 1930s, and the resurgence of the late 1940s before the harsh economic pressures of the 1950s led to the company's decline. Including heart-warming stories from the two world wars, when the ships donned warship grey and swept the sea lanes for mines, as well as fascinating 'White Funnel Trivia', this book evokes the hey-day of the White Funnel Steamers and their enduring appeal.

Hardback Book By Tom Pocock

Frederick Marryat was a novelist, for both adults and children, between Jane Austen and Charles Dickens. He was also known as Captain Marryat, naval hero of the great war with France, who went on to become a celebrated figure in Dickens' literary circle. A man about town, a journalist, duellist, courtier, and an acutely observant traveller in the United States, he finally settled as a farmer deep in the English countryside. This is his biography. Marryat's life was as extravagant as anything in his books. As a boy he went to sea with Lord Cochrane, a dashing frigate captain, and saw action in several engagements. He fought the Americans in 1812, but was later lionised by them as a famous author - only to be reviled for helping to suppress a French-Canadian rebellion. A man of charm and wit, Marryat also showed a hot, violent temper and was fined for brawling in London streets. Spending his way through three inherited fortunes, making and wasting huge earnings from his writing, he finally gambled away his smart London house to become a farmer in Norfolk.

Hardback
Pirates have been around as long as people have used the oceans as trade routes, and their reign on the world’s high seas has inspired many a novelist. But the type of pirate Ross Kemp is investigating now is a world away from the cutlass-and-peg-leg stereotype of Treasure Island and Pirates of the Caribbean. The corsairs he meets in Somalia, Indonesia and Nigeria are armed with AK47 assault rifles, RPG-7 rocket launchers and semi-automatic pistols. They race towards their targets in speed-boats and board and capture vessels in a flash. They are violent, dangerous and ruthless – they will stop at nothing to get the ransoms they have demanded. Piracy is becoming an increasingly serious problem that is not going away. As the pirates he meets stretch their operations ever further to new hunting grounds, Kemp finds out, often to his cost, how much of a force to be reckoned with they are.