A History of the British Merchant Navy Books in Order

The first volume of Woodman's Merchant Navy history traces British commercial seafaring from 1500 to the abolition of the slave trade in 1807. It connects overseas expansion, naval development, imperial competition, and commerce with the rise of maritime power.

Covering 1763 to 1815, this history examines Britain's merchant fleet after the Seven Years' War. Expanding markets and resources meet challenges from American independence, European rivals, wartime privateering, and the struggle to maintain commercial dominance at sea.

This concluding Merchant Navy history follows interwar hardship, the renewed sacrifice of the Second World War, and postwar prosperity. It then examines the decline of British shipping companies and the loss of an industry once central to national life.

Covering 1885 to 1920, Woodman examines Britain's merchant fleet at the height of its global reach. Ocean liners, tramp ships, and remaining sailing vessels support trade and migration before German submarines threaten the country's survival during the First World War.

Covering the nineteenth-century expansion of British merchant shipping, this volume connects empire and emigration with changing maritime technology. Tea clippers, steamships, Chinese trade, the Suez Canal, and safety reforms illuminate a fleet transforming its reach and working conditions.