The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea

This Companion is part of the Oxford Reference Collection: using sustainable print-on-demand technology to make the acclaimed backlist of the Oxford Reference program perennially available in hardback format.

The most comprehensive and authoritative reference book of its kind, The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea was first published in 1976 to huge acclaim, hailed as "a beguiling book" (Daily Telegraph), "marvellous" (The Times), and "totally absorbing" (Financial Times). This second edition was published in 2006 and brought together more than 2,600 entries on every imaginable aspect of the seas and the vessels that sail on them, from shipbuilding, yachting, diving, and marine mammals, to tidal power, piracy, and the literature and language of the sea.

This edition provides significant material on topics that have come to prominence in recent times, such as oceanography and marine archaeology: key contributions on these subjects from marine expert Dr Martin Angel at Southampton Oceanography Centre include climate change, environmental issues, marine pollution, and marine wildlife. Entries added to this edition are underwater vehicles, tsunamis, warfare at sea, marine pollution, the Economic Exclustion Zone, and ship preservation.

This Companion also includes authoritative and fascinating entries on maritime history: its naval battles, including Pearl Harbor and Trafalgar; its great ships, from Noah's Ark and the Bounty to the Titanic and the Mary Rose; and its most famous individuals, both real and fictional, including Christopher Columbus, Horatio Nelson, and Robinson Crusoe.

Entries are fully cross-referenced, and the text is illustrated with over 260 detailed drawings.

I. C. B. Dear (general editor of the second edition) served in the Royal Marines from 1953 to 1957 and saw active service in Cyprus. He subsequently worked in the film industry and in book publishing before becoming a full-time writer in 1979. His books on maritime and military subjects include Ten Commando, 1942-1945 (1987), Sabotage and Subversion (1996), Escape and Evasion (1997), and The Oxford Companion to the Second World War, of which he is general editor. He is also the compiler of Oxford English: A Guide to the Language (1986).

The late Peter Kemp (general editor of the first edition) was educated at the Royal Naval Colleges of Osborne and Dartmouth. Invalided from the Navy after service in sub-marines, he joined The Times as sporting and yachting editor, and was for many years on the editorial staff of that newspaper. During the Second World War he worked in the Naval Intelligence Division, and subsequently became Head of Naval Historical Branch, Ministry of Defence. He published widely on naval, military, and yachting subjects, and wrote several children's novels.