The sailing craft of Ancient Egypt, the balsa rafts of Lake Titicaca in Peru, the folk boats of the Orient, the superb ships-of-the-line which won Trafalgar; from the primitive beginnings of sail to the mountainous iron and steel ships of the nineteenth century, this book charts every major development in the story of man"s attempts to sail the oceans, to carry goods faster than his neighbor, to outmanoeuvre and sink his enemy. Color illustrations recreate ships and craft in remarkable detail.