The sea has many moods, few of them benevolent. Storm-force winds, blinding fog and sharp-fanged reefs have through the ages created generation after generation of grieving widows. But man, ever dependent on the sea, must continue to challenge it. Two centuries of maritime lore are spanned by this book, from a near-disastrous race across the Atlantic between the paddle-steamers Sirius and Great Western in 1838, to the Iranian attack on the Caribbean Breeze in 1985. It recounts famous disasters such as the sinking of the Titanic and Birkenhead; the loss of 132 lives on the car-ferry Princess Victoria, which foundered off Belfast in 1953; the storm-tossed trials of the first convict ships bound for Botany Bay, the thunder of the guns in two World Wars; and the senseless, avoidable tragedies during the flag-of-convenience era.