This is the story of the ship - a journey of six thousand years on all the waters of the world. The Ship takes us from Queen Hatshepsut's obelisk vessels and the papyrus rafts of the Nile into the Mediterranean of the classic times, into the world of the Phoenicians, the Greeks, and the Romans. Beyond the Pillars of Hercules the horizon stretches to distant lands: The Ship takes us with Columbus' Santa Maria to the Indies, into the great age of seafaring. Captain Cook, the East Indiamen, Nelson and the Victory, the graceful clippers, the first steam-propelled vessels, Mississippi paddle-wheelers, the Monitor and the Merrimack, icebreakers, aircraft carriers, tugs, whalers, and nuclear-powered submarines - Björn Landström knows them all, making his knowledge live in superb illustrations and informative text.