The exquisite prints ofJean-Jerome Baugean, a French marine artist of the Napoleonic era, are prized for their accuracy of detail and the light that they throw on the ships and practices of the period. The huge range ofvessels which he depicted, from the largest ships of the line to tiny, now forgotten coastal craft, forms a superb picture of the maritime world of the period. This new collection of his prints, with detailed captions, offers a rare insight into ships and ship handling in the great age of sail.

Apart from his accomplishment as an artist, Baugean was also a practical sailor, and his engravings are more than merely ship portraits. He often used an illustration to demonstrate some specific point of seamanship, shiphandling or port activity, but this aspect of his work has been ignored in previous editions, which merely reproduce his own very short labels. For this book, the world’s foremost authority has been enlisted to explain in depth the significance of each engraving.

This exquisite new edition is, therefore, as useful as it is attractive - a unique album of now vanished shipping and craft and the skills that were employed to handle them.