by Ashley Parry

At this time of year, while the weather for spending time by the seaside may truly be behind us, humanity’s relationship with the waves continues to be an important and fascinating subject. So, we at the Art Library decided to take a moment to appreciate it and hopefully you’ll be able to make some discoveries of your own!

I was first inspired to pursue this topic by the arrival of three beautiful, newly-donated books from the National Maritime Museum of Korea. Some of the text is only available in Korean, but regardless, the artefacts and accompanying captions are still a fantastic starting point for research into ships and trade goods for the periods and regions covered – particularly ceramics in a variety of forms and sporting a range of motifs.

I was particularly interested in the selection of model ships in the third and fourth sections of the museum’s catalogue published to celebrate 40 years of the National Research Institute of Maritime Cultural Heritage. These models included a wide array of types from kayaks (spelt in a way closer to the Inuktitut qajaq from which the English word derives) reminded me of other model ships I had seen on my travels throughout the library – from the Curious Model of the Britannia: A Ship of 100 Guns to Ship and Boat Models in Ancient Greece and Egyptian Watercraft Models from the Predynastic to Third Intermediate Periods.

It helped me to consider the comparison and contrasts between different cultures’ approaches to shipbuilding throughout history, that have varied depending on their needs and materials available. I had a similar reaction to the book Two Ancient Egyptian Ships’ Logs, also featured in the display. It was wonderful to consider how the ship’s log – still a vital tool for sailors today – was used in and speaks to us from the Egyptian New Kingdom period 3000 years ago.

I was also interested in the variety of finds from shipwrecks that can be found throughout the library. Of course, I could only include a few here, as the library has many, many examples of books on and including shipwrecks – almost too many to fathom! However, I hope the ones displayed illustrate what I found so intriguing – the fact that so much of human history and culture is bound up with and submerged in this environment which humans cannot inhabit. For evidence of this cultural relationship, one can also look to how naval subjects have influenced arts and crafts on land, as demonstrated by the books Turner & the Sea, Tempest and Shipwreck in Dutch and Flemish Art, The Art of Naval Portraiture, and British and Foreign Medals Relating to Naval and Maritime Affairs.

The fact of humanity’s relationship to the sea is a testament to our ingenuity. It can be easy to forget in this age of commonplace air travel, but, journeys by sea have been absolutely necessary to allow humans to trade and communicate with one another – even if it has always been a dangerous endeavour. This was memorably and absurdly illustrated by the Ever Given incident in 2021, but also, I would argue, by the transatlantic voyages of Greta Thunberg. Her efforts convey a more hopeful message about how replacing some air travel with seafaring could contribute to reducing global carbon emissions in future.

Of course, this ingenuity has a darker side, as it has also been used for violent ends throughout history, such as piracy, colonial expansion, and the transatlantic slave trade. These aspects can be found represented in the collections and in the display through The Royal Navy and the British Atlantic World, c. 1750–1820, The Suppression of the Atlantic Slave Trade: British Policies, Practices and Representations of Naval Coercion, and X Marks the Spot: The Archaeology of Piracy as well as many other texts. I was particularly fascinated by the e-book The Royal Navy in Indigenous Australia, 1795–1855 which is accessible on SOLO via SSO or on Bodleian Library PCs. This book explores the stories of how 135 objects created by Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander peoples were made part of the British Museum’s collections. I enjoyed the way that the authors both focused on the voices and agency of indigenous people and also embedded their stories in wider contexts. This is a fascinating read for anyone interested in Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander histories, British naval history and museum studies.

But, all of this means that an ability to access underwater archaeology is absolutely vital to a full understanding of the human story, and for that, the Art Library also has access to many books on the theoretical and practical challenges of this important work, a few of which are pictured below.

Cover images for WreckProtect, Conservation of Archaeological Ships and Boats, and Fishing and Shipwreck Heritage.

We at the Art Library hope that you’ve enjoyed joining us for this exploration of humanity’s ever-evolving relationship with the sea. I’ll just leave you with a reminder that the titles listed here are only a drop in the ocean and that there’s much more to discover via SOLO!

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Bibliography

C. G. Björdal and D. Gregory, WreckProtect: Decay and Protection of Archaeological Wooden Shipwrecks, Oxford, Archaeopress, 2011.

L. K Blue et al. (eds.), People and the Sea: a Maritime Archaeological Research Agenda for England, York, Council for British Archaeology, 2013.

I. Bojeson-Koefoed et. al, Conservation of Archaeological Ships and Boats: Personal Experiences, London, Archetype Publications in association with Deutsches SchiffahrtsMuseum, 2013.

R. Burroughs and R. Huzzey (eds.), The Suppression of the Atlantic Slave Trade: British Policies, Practices and Representations of Naval Coercion, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2017.

M. Downer, Curious Model of the Britannia: A Ship of 100 Guns, Cambridge, Martyn Downer Works of Art Ltd, 2025.

A. Englert and A. Trakadas, Wulfstan’s Voyage : the Baltic Sea Region in the Early Viking Age as Seen from Shipboard, Roskilde Denmark, Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, 2009.

C. R. Ewen and R. K. Skowronek (eds.), X Marks the Spot: the Archaeology of Piracy, Gainesville Fla., University of Florida Press, 2006.

France 24, ‘Greta Thunberg to sail the Atlantic for UN summit’,, France 24, 29/07/2019, https://www.france24.com/en/20190729-greta-thunberg-sail-atlantic-un-summit (accessed 17 September 2025)

K. Gazzard, The Art of Naval Portraiture, Greenwich London, Royal Museums Greenwich, 2024.

G. Glevaert, M. Pieters, and F. Verhaeghe, Fishery, trade and piracy : fishermen and fishermen’s settlements in and around the North Sea area in the Middle Ages and later = Visserij, handel en piraterij: vissers en vissersnederzettingen in en rond de Noordzee in de Middeleeuwen en later, Brussel, Vlaams Instituut voor het Onreorend Erfgoed, 2006.

L. O. Goedde, Tempest and Shipwreck in Dutch and Flemish Art: Convention, Rhetoric, and Interpretation, London, Pennsylvania State University Press, 1989.

J. J. Janssen, Two Ancient Egyptian Ship’s Logs: Papyrus Leiden I 350 verso and Papyrus Turin 2008+2016, Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1961.

R. Johns and C. Riding, Turner & the Sea, London, Thames & Hudson, 2013.

P. F. Johnston, Ship and Boat Models in Ancient Greece, Annapolis, Md, Naval Institute Press, 1985.

S. Kingsley and G. Stemm, Oceans Odyssey: Deep-Sea Shipwrecks in the English Channel, Straits of Gibraltar & Atalantic Ocean, Oxford, Oxbow Books, 2010.

S. A. Kingsley, Fishing and Shipwreck Heritage: Marine Archaeology’s Greatest Threat?, London, Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.

Kungnip Haeyang Munhwajae Yŏn’guso (Korea), 명 나라 무역선, 나나오 1호 = 明代 貿易船, 南澳 1號 = Nanao No. 1, a trade ship of the Ming Dynasty, Chŏlla-namdo Mokp’o-si, Kungnip Haeyang Munhwajae Yŏn’guso, 2016.

Kungnip Haeyang Munhwajae Yŏn’guso (Korea), 국립 해양 문화재 연구소 해양 유물 전시관 = National Research Institute of Maritime Cultural Heritage National Maritime Museum, Chŏlla-namdo Mokp’o-si, Kungnip Haeyang Munhwajae Yŏn’guso, 2016.

T. Law, ‘Climate Activist Greta Thunberg, 16, Arrives in New York After Sailing Across the Atlantic’, Time, August 28 2019, https://time.com/5663534/greta-thunberg-arrives-sail-atlantic/ (accessed 17 September 2025)

J. McAleer and C. Petley (eds.), The Royal Navy and the British Atlantic World, c. 1750-1820, London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.

A. M. Merriman, Egyptian Watercraft Models from the Predynastic to Third Intermediate Periods, Oxford, Archaeopress, 2011.

D. Robinson, Maritime Archaeology and Ancient Trade in the Mediterranean, Oxford, Oxford Centre for Maritime Archaeology, 2011.

D. Simpson, The Royal Navy in Indigenous Australia, 1795-1855: Maritime Encounters and British Museum Collections, Cham, Springer International Publishing, Imprint: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020.

Wikimedia Commons, ‘File:Container Ship ‘Ever Given’ stuck in the Suez Canal, Egypt – March 24th, 2021 (51070311183).jpg’, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Container_Ship_%27Ever_Given%27_stuck_in_the_Suez_Canal,_Egypt_-_March_24th,_2021_(51070311183).jpg, (accessed 17 September 2025)