Conway Maritime Press

Had we lived, I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance and courage of my companions which would have stirred the heart of every Englishman. These rough notes and our dead bodies must tell the tale Extract from Scotts message to the public, March 1912. The late 1890s saw the start of a heroic age in polar exploration. This book tells the story of three men who were to embody the spirit of...

There is little documented mapping of conflict prior to the Renaissance period, but, from the 17th century onwards, military commanders and strategists began to document the wars in which they were involved and later, to use mapping to actually plan the progress of a conflict.

An adventurous best mate in book form, The Girl Outdoors is a rip-roaring guide to the wider, wilder world. Whether you're going on a physically demanding expedition or making cordial from foraged berries, this beautiful book is packed with inspiring and attainable ideas and advice.

William Shakespeare's lifetime (1564-1616) spanned the reigns of the last of the Tudors, Elizabeth I and the first of the Stuart kings, James I and the changing times and political mores of the time were reflected through his plays.

The United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency, most commonly known as MI5, was founded in 1909 by Sir Vernon Kell KBE. Kell ('K' within the agency) not only founded MI5 but was also its Director for 31 years, the longest tenure of any head of a British government department during the twentieth century. Kell was also fluent in six foreign languages, making him arguably the most gift...

The Beagle has become synonymous with Charles Darwin and his groundbreaking title On the Origin of Species. But how did Darwin come to be on board? Now reissued in paperback, in a single volume all the various strands of the Beagle story have been woven together to reveal the circumstances that set the expedition in motion and the characters who circumnavigated the world together. Enriched with first-hand c...

In The Routemaster Pocket-Book Matthew Jones offers the readers a compilation of instructions and articles, facts and figures, press releases, etc, about London’s double-decker Routemaster buses which for nearly half a century were as much a symbol of the city as its red telephone boxes or the black cabs.

Responding to Titanic's distress calls in the early hours of 15 April 1912, Captain Arthur Rostron raced the Cunard liner Carpathia to the scene of the sinking, rescued the seven hundred survivors of the world's most famous shipwreck and then carried them to safety at New York. After twenty-five years at sea, the competence and compassion Rostron displayed during the rescue made him a hero on two continent...

Brian Lavery, the pre-eminent historian of the Royal Navy, turns his astute and wide-ranging analytical eye on to its 'lower deck' - the world of the seamen as distinct from the officers of the 'quarterdeck'. If not totally overlooked in the grand narratives of the Senior Service the lower deck is often only noticed when it is a problem. Seamen are difficult to recruit, sometimes they mutiny on board ship, ...

To sail the oceans needed skill as well as courage and experience, and the sea chart with, where appropriate, the coastal view, was the tool by which ships of trade, transport or conquest navigated their course. This book looks at the history and development of the chart and the related nautical map, in both scientific and aesthetic terms, as a means of safe and accurate seaborne navigation. The Italian mer...

During much of his early career, from 1944 through to the early 1960s, Richard Hardy took hundreds of pictures of life on the railways and the men he knew and worked with on a daily basis, using his trusty Brownie 620 box camera. These unique behind the scenes images form a fascinating and hugely evocative portrayal of Britain at the height of the era of steam, during the time of the 'Big Four', and after 1...

With the character of the Arctic in a dramatic state of flux, and arguments over sovereignty once again rising to the surface, it is timely that a history of the exploration of this remote region be published. Wide-reaching in its scope and beautifully presented with artworks, maps and charts from the Nurminen Foundation and numerous European museums, private collections and archives, this is a full account...

In this remarkable book, now reissued in paperback, Brian Lavery examines every aspect of the Royal Navy, both ashore and at sea, during the Second World War, and casts a lucid eye over the strengths and weaknesses of an organisation that was put under acute strain during the period, yet rose to the challenge with initiative and determination.

The British Isles have a long, rich and celebrated seafaring history stretching from the earliest times through the victories of Drake and Nelson, the voyages of discovery of Cabot and Cook and the defence of the realm by vessels of all types in the present century. Much of this history is recorded in literature and in museums but reaches its most tangible form in the large number of historical ships that h...

The great warship the Mary Rose was built between 1509 and 1511 and served 34 years in Henry VIII's navy before catastrophically sinking in the Battle of the Solent on 19 July 1545. A fighting platform and sailing ship, she was the pride of the Tudor fleet. Yet her memory passed into undeserved oblivion - until the remains of this magnificent flagship were dramatically raised to the surface in 1982 after 43...

As an instrument of science and navigation the telescope was at the forefront of discovery. Even today it is vital to modern understanding of space and the origins of matter. The story of its development is a fascinating narrative of scientific endeavour, exploration and ingenuity, encompassing the lives of scientists and astronomers such as Galileo, Newton, William Herschel and Edmund Halley as well a...

The Special Air Service was the brainchild of Scots Guards' officer Lieutenant David Stirling, serving with No 8 Commando. He advocated a specially organised, specially equipped and specially trained unit dedicated to the 'unrelenting pursuit of excellence' that could act covertly and operate behind enemy lines to gain intelligence, destroy enemy aircraft and attack their supply and reinforcement routes. Th...

The year 1588 marked a turning point in our national story. Victory over the Spanish Armada transformed us into a seafaring nation and it sparked a myth that one day would become a reality - that the nation's new destiny, the source of her future wealth and power lay out on the oceans. This book tells the story of how the navy expanded from a tiny force to become the most complex industrial enterprise on ea...