From the Stone Age to the present day, no technology has had a more profound impact on mankind than watercraft. Boats and ships made possible the settlement and conquest of new worlds. They determined the victors of history-changing wars and aided the spread of new philosophies, technologies and religions. Even today, virtually everything we purchase and consume depends on seaborne trade.

Fifty Ships that Changed the Course of History is more than just a delight for lovers of the sea – it’s a virtual history of the world told through the boats and ships that influenced how and where people lived, the ideas they exchanged and how they won and lost the battles that set the course of later generations and millennia. Beautifully illustrated with art and photographs, it is a guide to how men and women went to sea in every age and place.

IAN GRAHAM has written extensively for magazines and has written and co-written more than 200 books on a wide range of topics, including space exploration, aviation, transport, energy, communications, inventions and military technology. He has a degree in applied physics and a postgraduate diploma in journalism. In 2012 he was the joint winner of the Royal Society Young People's Book Prize and in 2014 he was shortlisted for the Educational Writers' Award.