A Royal Navy 28 gun frigate c1794

Maritime history

Illustration of pirate John Ward

Pirate John Ward: the real Captain Jack Sparrow

William Dalrymple on the East India Company. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

William Dalrymple is an award-winning writer and historian based in India. (Photo by Bikramjt Bose)

“This was a corporation that could topple kings”: William Dalrymple on the East India Company. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Castaways: 5 remarkable shipwreck stories from history

The HMS Victory in Portsmouth

A visit to HMS Victory, Nelson's flagship at Trafalgar. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Henry VIII's Mary Rose (© 19th era/Alamy)

7 things you (probably) didn’t know about Henry VIII's flagship, the Mary Rose

Britain didn't "rule the waves" after the battle of Trafalgar, says historian Sam Willis

Clash between the English Temeraire and the French Redoutable ships during the Battle of Trafalgar, October 21, 1805. (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images)

The battle of Trafalgar. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Winner takes all: A painting shows the French ship 'Redoutable' clashing with the British 'Temeraire'. "Regardless of the victory off Cape Trafalgar, it was another decade before Britain and her allies defeated Napoleon. (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images)

Trafalgar, a futile victory? Why Nelson's triumph didn't turn the tide on Napoleon

Captain James Lawrence of the Chesapeake is wounded

The capture of the Chesapeake: how the British Royal Navy rescued its reputation in the War of 1812

The Endurance, the ship of Ernest Shackleton

My history hero: Ernest Shackleton (d1922). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Illustration by Davide Bonazzi

Did the Age of Exploration bring more harm than good?

James Cook, commander of HMS 'Endeavour', meets Tahitians in an 18th-century engravings. The ship's naturalist Joseph Banks declared the Polynesian island "the truest picture of an Arcadia". (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images)

How the arrival of Europeans rocked the native cultures of Tahiti and Australia

The Spanish Armada defeated in the English Channel in July 1588, by Hendrick Cornelis Vroom, c1600. (Picture by DEA PICTURE LIBRARY/Getty Images)

10 things you (probably) didn’t know about the Spanish Armada

A 19th-century depiction of HMS Erebus in the ice, by François Etienne Musin. What exactly happened to the ship and its crew remains a mystery. (Picture by Alamy)

Michael Palin on HMS Erebus and the doomed Franklin Expedition of 1845. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The opening ceremony of London’s Tower Bridge on 30 June 1894. The bridge became a symbol of London’s importance as a global maritime hub (Photo by Francis Frith/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Britain's imperial landmarks: The empire on our doorsteps

The remains of a 1940 naval battle in Narvik, Norway – several battles between German and Norwegian forces took place in the Ofotfjord in the spring of 1940. (Photo by Galerie Bilderwelt/Getty Images)

The Navy and the battle for Britain in 1940

A depiction of HMS Endeavour off the coast of New Holland, by Samuel Atkins c1794. (Photo by UtCon Collection / Alamy Stock Photo)

5 facts about Captain Cook’s HMS Endeavour

An illustration showing the last moments of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, the explorer, soldier and half-brother of Sir Walter Ralegh. (Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

The Tudor guide to colonising the world

Captain Cook's Endeavour podcast

Captain Cook’s Endeavour. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Q&AWas Captain Bligh hated by the crew of the Bounty?

Police hold back Mrs Lillian Bilocca on the quayside at Hull

The 1968 Triple Trawler Disaster and the women who fought for change

The ruins of the Canadian port of Halifax in the wake of the explosion in December 1917. Almost 2,000 people were killed and 9,000 injured when two ships collided at the height of the First World War. (Photo by Bettmann/Contributor/Getty Images)

Catastrophe in Canada

First World War

“We die like brothers”: The sinking of the SS Mendi

5 facts you (probably) didn’t know about Nelson’s navy

Matthew Perry Entertaining Japanese Commissioners on Ship

What happened when US Commodore Perry sailed into Tokyo Bay?

Lady Hall launches the British India Company passenger liner SS Uganda in Clydeside docks with the traditional bottle of champagne, 1952. The first time champagne was used to launch a ship was when Queen Victoria launched HMS Royal Arthur in 1891. (Photo by George Douglas/Getty Images)

Q&AWhy do we smash champagne bottles against new ships?

Crew of the HMS Terror. (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images)

Finding HMS Terror and making sense of the past

A Royal Navy battle

The Royal Navy’s American disaster

Q&AWhere does the word ‘posh’ come from?