Small, scruffy and stinking of seal oil and old blubber, the 458-ton Nimrod wasn’t Ernest Shackleton’s first choice of ship for his Antarctic Expedition. Ships to Remember, beautifully illustrated by the paintings of Austin Dwyer, is a collection of stories about remarkable ships, some of which went on to change the course of history.

Small, scruffy and stinking of seal oil and old blubber, the 458-ton Nimrod wasn’t Ernest Shackleton’s first choice of ship for his Antarctic Expedition. Similarly unassuming, the squat, two-masted HMS Beagle, more suited to routine naval tasks, didn’t look much like a ship that was to help deliver one of the most groundbreaking theories of science ever. Ships to Remember, beautifully illustrated by the paintings of Austin Dwyer, is a collection of stories about remarkable ships, some of which went on to change the course of history. Many are now famous, but some, like the tugs Yelcho, Foundation Franklin and Turmoil are virtually unknown. Two boats in particular, the Bounty’s longboat and the James Caird, completed two of the most extraordinary voyages in maritime history. Spanning 1,400 years, this fascinating book includes the catastrophic sinking and eventual recovery of the Vasa, Nelson’s triumph at the Battle of Copenhagen, Darwin’s epochal voyage on HMS Beagle and the pivotal Second World War relief of Malta by the tanker Ohio.