This stylish volume brings together the world’s most famous and celebrated ships from fact and fiction, history, art and film. Collectively these vessels tell stories of human progress, imagination, ambition and tragedy, whilst also symbolizing the power and prestige of great maritime nations. Ship reflects many different uses of the sea, and investigates the ship as artefact, emblem and icon, drawing out meaning from the myriad representations of all manner of craft from antiquity to the present day. Triumph and disaster sit side by side in its pages, tracing key developments in ship design, function and purpose and addressing numerous themes through the texts that accompany each image. The list of distinguished contributors includes maritime historians, naval commentators, museum curators, experts in marine art and other scholars in related fields, while the entries include diverse ships such as the Mary Rose, the Bonhomme Richard, Nelson’s Victory, CSS Alabama, Captain Nemo’s Nautilus, the battleship Yamato, Normandie, the Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior and Jack Sparrow’s Black Pearl.