In the post-war era, there was still a demand for ocean-going travel, not just on the glamorous large liners and mail ships, but also on much smaller ships.
For generations of Londoners, a trip to the seaside aboard a pleasure steamer such as the Royal Eagle, Golden Eagle or Royal Daffodil was the highlight of the year and these 'Poor Man's Liners' were part of childhood and family life for huge numbers of people.
P&O was established in 1837 and maintained a schedule of routes to India, the Far East and Australia, being the first choice for the majority of passengers travelling to that part of the world.
Continuing the Steam Days Remembered series with Eastern Steam Days Remembered, Kevin Derrick takes us on a leisurely ramble back around both the Eastern and North Eastern regions during the 1950s and 1960s in this volume.
With the coming of the naval arms race with Germany, in 1903 the Admiralty decided to establish a naval base and dockyard at Rosyth, taking advantage of deep tidal water there.
The islands surrounding Scapa Flow made one of Britain's best natural harbours, while the location at the north of Scotland protected the approaches to the North Sea and Atlantic.
John Cooper takes the reader on a fascinating journey along the towpath of the Grand Union Canal, which meanders through what is arguably one of the most picturesque stretches of inland waterway in the county.
Featuring 180 wonderful images, Classic Boats offers an accessible, beautifully illustrated guide to some of the stunning craft that can be seen around the shores of Europe today.
In 1977, the remote British island of St Helena in the South Atlantic, host to Napoleon and Captain Bligh, and Boer War prisoner-of-war camp, was first served by a lifeline motorship dedicated to the purpose.
After the German surrender in November 1918, the German High Seas Fleet was interned at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands, the anchorage for the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet throughout the First World War.
In 2014 Pembroke Dock celebrates 200 years since its founding, when a Royal Dockyard - the only one ever to exist in Wales - was established here on the banks of Milford Haven.
In May 1940, following the rapid advance of German troops through Holland, Belgium and France, the British Expeditionary Force and French army retreated to Dunkirk.
Smuggling in Cornwall: An Illustrated History tells the story of the smuggling trade that flourished in Cornwall during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
The Holland America Line was founded in 1873 and operated a fleet of passenger and cargo vessels from the Netherlands to the east and west coasts of America.
In the aftermath of the Second World War, paddle steamers in Britain initially did rather well, with four new ones built between 1946 and 1953 and about sixty still in service nationwide.
From the bestselling author of 'The Lighthouse Stevensons', a gripping history of the drama and danger of wrecking since the 18th-century - and the often grisly ingenuity of British wreckers, scavengers of the sea.
';The passages he addresses directly to Phoebe are as tender as the father-daughter letters in Karl Ove Knausgaard's Seasons Quartet' Times Literary Supplement ';This book tells the inspiring story of how even the least skilled of us can make something wonderful if we invest enough time and love' The Daily Mail Both the book, and place, are magical The Sunday Telegraph When Jonathan Gornall decided to build a boat for his daughter, he had no experience and no practical skills.
Tales of London's Docklands is an engaging and endearing account of the day-to-day experiences of hardworking dockers in the Port of London after the Second World War.
*A Newstatesman Book of the Year* Nimble, vital, unexpectedly affecting ObserverBestselling travel writer Horatio Clare joins an icebreaker for a voyage through the ice-packs of the far north.
Starting with an introduction about discovering the coal-burning paddle steamers of the Humber in the early 1970s the book continues with a brief history of the ferries of the Humber Estuary, the coming of the first paddle steamer, the Caledonia, in 1814 and the rapid expansion of steamers operating on the estuary.
TRAMPER tells the story of the Capelin, a battered old World War II supply ship that earns its keep crossing the stormy North Pacific between Seattle and the Aleutian Islands delivering cargo to the remote fishing villages of Western Alaska.
This is the second of two volumes covering Royal Navy 6-inch cruisers of the 1930s and later, this one devoted to the 'second generation' designs armed with triple mountings.
We've been sending one another postcards for well over a century now - usually brief messages to our friends and family telling them about the weather on our holidays or where we're visiting next on our travels.
