Tom Nancollas

The Ship Asunder: A Maritime History in Eleven Vessels is the second book from Seashaken Houses author Tom Nancollas. In his latest work, Tom turns his attention to Britain’s maritime past, and creates a lyrical and poignant exploration of our seafaring history from the Bronze Age to the present day.

Join us as Tom takes us through some of the relics which tell the story of Britain at sea. From the prow of a Bronze Age vessel and the bell of a Georgian slave ship, to a mast plucked from a Victorian steamship and the propeller of an Edwardian ocean liner, each fragment illuminates a distinct phase of our adventures upon the waves, and each brings us close to the people, places and vessels that made a maritime nation.

Weaving together stories of naval architects and shipwrights, fishermen and merchants, shipwrecks and superstition, pilgrimage, trade, slavery and war, The Ship Asunder surveys Britain’s seafaring tradition in all its glory and tragedy, triumph and disaster, and asks how we might best memorialise it as it vanishes from our shores.