Spans five thousand years of the ocean's history to tell the stories of the courageous individuals who sailed the seas for trade, to conquer new lands, and to explore the unknown, from the early Polynesians to the first circumnavigations by the Portuguese and the British.

Roger Paine, retired Navy commander and former secretary to the trustees of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, has authored a collection of true stories about fascinating people and places. If you have an interest in the sea, you can learn about how the cells in one of Scotland's biggest prisons were emptied to provide crews for merchant ships in World War II, or how the father of a young musician playing in the palm court of the Titanic was...

Au Moyen ge, la navigation reposait sur un délicat équilibre entre art et science. Tout en respectant les usages et la prudence de leurs aïeux, les marins devaient compter sur leurs connaissances des étoiles, des vents, des courants et même des vols migratoires. Ils se servaient aussi de cartes peintes à la main, sommaires certes, mais merveilleusement bien dessinées. En suivant l'épopée des anciens navigateurs, d'Eric Le Rouge à Robert...