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Welcome to Mainmast Books

We are sellers of maritime books covering topics such as Ferries, Liners, Merchant Ships & Shipping Lines, Model Ships, Naval & Maritime History, Paddle Steamers, Ports, Shipbuilding

our main website is at www.mainmastbooks.co.uk (You should automatically be forwarded to this link, but in case of any delay please click on the link provided) Holland America Line: The Spotless Fleet We are very proud to announce the publication of a companion book to Stephen Card’s hugely successful CUNARDER, which remained in our Top Ten selling list for the whole of 2005. This follow-up book features fine reproductions of Captain Card’s paintings of famous Holland America vessels. Most of these beautiful pictures currently hang on board Holland America ships, whilst others are in private collections. The book forms a handsome record of the development of this famous fleet, from the very early liners to the present-day cruise ships. Eighty-four paintings are faithfully reproduced and there are also sixteen pen-and-ink drawings. Each painting is accompanied by a page of text detailing the ship’s career. The book also contains a detailed fleet list, a biography of Captain Stephen Card and a chapter on the paints and other materials favoured by him. This is a major 2006 title for maritime enthusiasts. 224pp. 84 full-colour reproductions, 16 pen & ink drawings. HBK. 240x300mm Landscape. Cunarder Card, Stephen J Stephen Card was commissioned to produce a collection of pictures to be hung on board the Queen Mary 2. These are now reproduced here and present a splendid pictorial history of the most famous ships of the Cunard fleet, including the Britannia of 1840, Mauretania, Lusitania, Aquitania, Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, QE2, QM2. Each painting is accompanied by an informative text outlining the history of the ship portrayed. It includes a chapter by Stephen Card; an Introduction by Commodore Ron Warwick, the QM2’s master; a Foreword by Stephen M. Payne, the new liner’s designer; and a chapter by Maurizio Eliseo. Presented in an anti-tear full-colour dust jacket. 176pp. 40 paintings, 9 original pen & ink drawings, 16 colour photographs. HBK.240x300mm (Landscape). De Ouwe Werf Belder, Bram 9076496250 This is a master work on one of the world's greatest and most enduring shipping companies. The book has full Dutch text, but the statistical information is universally understandable. The photographic element is something to drool over. Featured throughout the book's 656 large-format pages are 268 full-colour and 1,128 black-and-white photographs, including plenty of interiors. Additionally, there are 108 pages of general ships' plans. Cornelis Smit is generall regarded as the founder of the company in 1812 and this complete historical document brings the story right up to 2005. This is followed by a detailed and heavily-illustrated fleet list of no less than 947 vessels! The endmatter comprises four separate indices and a bibliography. Cox's Navy: Salvaging the German high Seas Fleet at Scapa Flow 1924-1931 Booth, Tony ISBN 1844151816 Pen & Sword Books Ltd On mid-Summer's Day 1919 the interned German Grand Fleet was scuttled by their crews at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands despite a Royal Navy guard force. Greatly embarrassed, the Admiralty nevertheless confidently stated that none of the ships would ever be recovered. Had it not been for the drive and ingenuity of one man there is indeed every possibility that they would still be resting on the sea bottom today. Cox's Navy tells the incredible true story of Ernest Cox, a Wolverhampton-born scrap merchant, who, despite having no previous experience, led the biggest salvage operation in history to recover the ships. The 28,000 ton Hindenberg was the largest ship ever salvaged. Not knowing the boundaries enabled Cox to apply solid common sense and brilliant improvisation, changing forever marine salvage practice during peace and war Conceived in 1907, Titanic was two years in design and 37 months in construction at the great Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She was the biggest ship the world had ever seen, and thought by many to be indestructible. But she sank just five days into her maiden voyage, en route to New York in 1912. Some 1500 people died. This book, takes the story of the ship right back to the beginning, to the decision to build it in the first place. From there we go into the shipyard, where 4,000 tradesmen - joiners, fitters, electricians, plumbers, welders, riveters and many more - rivet by rivet, plate by plate, turned those plans and blueprints into a towering hulk of an ocean liner. Once the outer shell was complete, the luxurious passenger accommodation was fitted out, the dining rooms, the squash court, gymnasium, libraries, smoking rooms and even Turkish baths. The men that built her knew every bolt and rivet, every dove-tail joint, every new-fangled piece of kit, every vibration of the engine. For them, Titanic would always be the world's greatest ship. This is an extraordinary story of modern engineering and also of human endeavour and, ultimately, fallibility. Illustrated throughout with blueprints, cross-sections and haunting photographs of the Titanic in construction, Building the Titanic adds a fascinating dimension to the history of the world's most famous ship.