Oars, Sails and Steam

The evolution of shipbuilding reflects the growth of civilization, and in "Oars, Sails, and Steam", Edwin Tunis has produced an illustrated history of water transport from the dugout to the aircraft carrier. He presents the most interesting and important types of boats and ships in chronological order, revealing each advance that made navigation easier, faster and more efficient. Every page in the book offers a new adventure in the story of humanity's progress in travelling across the seas. The Egyptian sailboats that plied the waters of the Nile in 4700 BC give way to Phoenician warboats, Greek war galleys and Roman triremes, which in turn are surpassed by Norse long ships, Mediterranean carracks, Elizabethan galleons, and British East Indiamen. The Steam Age is represented by John Fitch's 1787 Delaware River steamboat; the 1807 "Clermont", which made five miles per hour against the current of the Hudson; and the "Curacao", which in 1827 became the first ship to cross the Atlantic almost entirely under steam power. Graceful clipper ships, profitable whaling barks, reliable tramp steamers, opulent steam liners, and deadly warships, from destroyers to submarines, round out Tunis's illustrated history. In addition to his drawings of the vessels, Tunis includes a glossary of seagoing terms and detailed diagrams that take readers below decks, up in the rigging, and alongside the gunners of the USS "Raleigh". First published in 1952, the book is a treasury for all those who are sailors at heart.