From oar-powered quinqueremes, to steam-powered freighters, to luxury ocean liners such as the Titanic, to aircraft carriers like hms Queen Elizabeth, throughout history ships have played an integral role in trade, transportation and war.

Today, ships remain the largest and most expensive moving objects on the planet; engineers and designers constantly push the limits of design, creating vessels that continue to challenge newer technologies such as aeroplanes and cars.

But for all of our knowledge about ships acquired from movies, photography and literature, most of us never actually see really large ships in real life.

Unlike cars, trains and airplanes, the great ships of the world travel in the deep oceans, out of sight and out of mind - until, that is, something goes wrong.

In Ship, Gregory Votolato explores the fiction and the reality of modern ships, the technology that creates them, and the events that can lead to disasters such as the Amoco Cadiz or Exxon Valdez. Votolato delves into the world of the ship, describing the unpredictable and often-hostile environment of the oceans and its weather, the threat of piracy, and the captains and crews responsible for ships at sea. Ship's broad overview of ship technology and design offers unique insights, and shows how our ideas about ships sometimes do not reflect the reality of these extraordinary products of human creativity.

Votolato's book will appeal to dedicated mariners, as well as those who are interested in ships and their social, political and technological impact on our modern world.