The historical development of carvel construction from the Roman period in the Mediterranean through the Middle Ages to more recent times in Northern Europe is fully described in these eighteen papers from the Fifth international Symposium on Boat and Ship Archaeology held in Amsterdam in 1988. Local and regional craft are described in a further six papers and recent research and discoveries in seven. Contributions include: on Mediterranean and Roman vessels (J R Steffy, P Pomey, E Riccardi, O Hockmann, B Arnold, L T Lehmann, M D de Weerd); on Medieval to 16th century vessels (O L Filgueiras, A van de Moortel, E Rieth, J Litwin); on 17th cent and later vessels (R A Barker, J N Green, R Oosting, A J Hoving, J H Gawronski, M Githche, T C Gillmar); on local craft: Aegean (K Daminiadis), Spanish (F Alonso), Polish (J Litwin), the coble (L D Harris), Irish (M McCaughan), Brazilian (J P Sarsfield); on current research and discoveries (E Rieth, C O Cederlund, S McGrail, S Parry, G Hutchinson, W C Riess, D C Switzer, C F Moura).