Delving into our distant past

Ships and seafaring today are the product of millennia of hardwon knowledge, with our forebears' successes and failures gradually leading to the development of larger, faster and more sophisticated vessels.

When circumstances prompted a need for waterborne transport, our early ancestors hollowed out logboats and found ways to tie planks or reeds together for simple rafts. As time went on, they invented sails and learned the signs which would help them navigate out of sight of shore.

We know this partly because it must have happened in order for us to reach the point where we are now, but there is also a wealth of archaeological and historical evidence.

In Early Ships and Seafaring: European Water Transport, Seán McGrail explores this evidence in depth, referring to a wide range of documentary sources. He also looks at modern attempts to reconstruct early vessels to find out if the methods we think early boatbuilders used would result in a watertight and navigable craft.

After exploring general concepts and techniques, the author takes a closer look at early waterborne transport of the Mediterranean and Atlantic Europe. This is line with the volume's European focus; a second book exists on early ships and seafaring elsewhere in the world.

First published around a decade ago, the European volume has earned a recent reissue by Pen & Sword. Illustrated with diagrams and other black-and-white images throughout, it has a comprehensive biography and index, and is well worth a read for the thoroughness of its research.

Early Ships and Seafaring: European Water Transport
By Seán McGrail
Pen & Sword, £15.99
ISBN: 978 13990 19453