Excavating Ships of War

`Whosoever commands the sea commands trade, whosoever commands the trade of the world commands the riches of the world, and consequently the world itself' Sir Walter Raleigh. An important truth, and from the 16th century until 1945 the command of the sea was enforced by the warships described in this book. From the ships of the Spanish Armada wrecked off Ireland in 1588 to the Union Ironclad USS Monitor sunk in 1862. From the HM sloop of war Swift lost in Patagonia in 1770 to the WWII wrecks left in Pearl Harbour. The 27 articles in this book reflect archaeological explorations of wrecks from a huge range of times and places. The large number of b/w illustrations and line drawings show how the mundane objects recovered from sailors' cabins can reveal as much about past lives as the rusted cannons can about military strategy.