This delightful hardback, first edition from Aurum Press of London, was a gift, in that year, to the boat from a gentleman named Chris Sealy who had signed on for that year's crossing. 

Beautifully illustrated, the book traces the origins of Atlantic sailing as far back as the Norse voyagers of 1000 years ago. This book, although now rather battered from perusal by so many aboard (and the frequent returns to it that we continue to make), is still one of the  jewels of our library.

Having seen how much it will cost you to acquire a copy of this book at Amazon, or elsewhere come to that, we are wondering whether we should actually keep our copy of Atlantic Sail in the safe...

This book (our copy is the 1994 Pimlico paperback edition, the original was published in 1987) is, as far as we are concerned, the definitive Nelson biography, certainly from a historical point of view, although we have several others which add extra dimensions and insights. 

The  Daily Telegraph, a major British newspaper describe Tom Pocock as 'indisputably our best Nelson authority' on the cover of Horatio Nelson and, in our opinion, they are unmistaken . 

This book, in a sense, takes up where Tom Pocock's leaves off, in fact Tom Pocock loaned the extensive notes he had made for his biography (see above) to Christopher Hibbert who, in addition, engaged in a great deal of further research into Nelson's life away from the battlegrounds and public life. 

We enjoyed this 1994 Viking 1st edition a great deal and feel that, along with a few others, Nelson: A Personal History has helped to round out our knowledge of Nelson as a man as well as a naval hero.

Published by the Folio Society in 1994, this beautifully bound volume was a gift to the captain from the first mate's mother the year before she died. 

The captain being born on Trafalgar Day (21st October) has always been fascinated by Nelson, as had the first mate's mother, being born just one day earlier and interested in all things historical. 

The volume contains many letters previously unlikely to have been seen by members of the general public and many descriptions of people and events connected with the couple whose affair both shocked and inspired society at the time and for generations to come, in some ways.

Unfortunately, Amazon are not currently offering any copies of this fine book.

A superb and sensitive biography of the woman who captured Nelson's heart and was, ultimately, very shabbily treated by the country for which Nelson fought and died, in spite of his written last request that she be taken care of. 

The copy aboard was unearthed in a thrift shop in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in April this year, in brand new condition, at US$1 which  has to be the best investment of a dollar we have ever made. It was originally published  in London, UK but this edition was published by Coward, McCann &Geoghegan, Inc., of New York, in 1978.

Amazon have many copies of Emma Hamilton starting at very little...

This 1978, hardcover, B. T. Batsford publication, is full of enchanting photographs of a bygone era, although a few of the yachts included are still afloat today. 

There is an awesome photograph of 'Shamrock II' after she had snapped her mast in a race on 22nd May 1901; there is one of  'Galatea' in the 1886 Harwich Regatta, the year after she challenged 'Mayflower' for the Americas Cup and so many other wonderful photographs. 

The book was a Christmas gift the managing editor bought for her father the year it was published. When he passed away in 1985, at the age of 77, Victorian and Edwardian Yachting was returned to her. It has been a treasured part of her library ever since. 

This huge hardcover volume which comes case bound (in Canvas Extra cloth) was published in 1975 by Phaidon Press of  London, printed and bound in Italy. 

It was originally purchased by the mate as a gift to her father in the year of its' publication, on his death it was returned to her and became her first gift to the captain in appreciation of the first of many fabulous meals aboard - it is not only men who can be led by their stomachs! 

This is a lovely book, containing many photographs, showing whence the research Lionel Willis used to ensure a greater degree of accuracy than is common in this kind of book. His paintings are technical paintings, designed to show exactly what the craft were like. 

By no means a definitive collection of all there ever was to be seen - that knowledge is still being pieced together to this day as divers discover more and more of the past below the waves - but certainly a fair collection of the vessels about which enough was known at that time.

Unfortunately, Amazon do not appear to have any copies available.

Unfortunately, our 1979 Penguin Books edition of this wonderful book has parted company with its' jacket and we can find no trace of an ISBN number elsewhere in the fly-leaves - perhaps a kind reader can tell us of the most recent edition and relevant ISBN? 

A fascinating volume for anyone interested in history and travel. Written originally in 1298/9, seven hundred years have passed since Marco Polo claimed, not without reason, since no contemporary or predecessor of his made any similar claim, to have travelled more extensively than any other man since the creation.

The Travels Of Marco Polo makes fascinating reading and is available in various forms at Amazon.

Published by Oxford University Press, ours is a copy of the 2nd edition, brought out in 1981. It tells and shows the history of the River Thames from source to estuary, introducing us to places and people both living and long gone.  

If one were to take a journey up, or down this history-laden stretch of water, A Thames Companion would bring it alive and enhance ones' pleasure in the whole trip. Even without going there, one can learn much of the river which runs through London, capital city of England just through dipping into the book.

This large, 1st edition,  hardcover volume, published by Hodder & Stoughton in 1991, follows the extraordinary voyage of a replica of the 'Niña', in June 1990, with details duplicated in every respect possible to match, as closely as possible, the conditions which would have prevailed aboard the original 'Niña', even in terms of the diet consumed.

Dr. Luís Miguel Coin Cuenca, professor of maritime history at the University of Cadiz, in Spain, supervised the construction of the replica and was her captain on this fascinating 're-run'. The journey was undertaken as a research into the veracity (or otherwise) of the logs and claims of Christopher Columbus, a combined academic exercise and piece of active investigative reporting.  

Twenty five crew, between the replica and her escort yacht 'Tartessos' went on this extraordinary voyage of discovery - what they discovered was not so surprising to them, or to many Atlantic sailors who found details of the original voyage highly unlikely, but it made a lie out of much of what is contained in history books about the discovery of the new world.

Columbus For Gold and Glory is readily available through Amazon.