Forgotten Songs and Stories of the Sea

A collection of fascinating folklore and maritime trivia about pirates, explorers, naval battles, shipwrecks, sea monsters, and more.

Stirring tales of heroism at sea have been ingrained in the annals of maritime history from time immemorial. Christopher Columbus’s discovery of the New World, Queen Elizabeth I’s defeat of the Spanish Armada, and Horatio Nelson’s victory at Trafalgar are just some of Britain’s most memorable naval triumphs. But what about the lesser-known tales from its seafaring past?

The Victorian who invented a swimming machine in order to cross the English Channel; the capture of a real-life mermaid; the lost pirate treasure of Alborn; the ghost of a murdered sailor who still haunts the streets of Portsmouth; and the daring explorers who vanished into the blue yonder, leaving behind nothing but a cryptic message in a champagne bottle—these are just some of the quirky naval stories that have been chronicled in verse and archived in newspaper clippings, and forgotten with the passage of time. Historian and genealogist Caroline Rochford has compiled 200 traditional songs and stories into this book, which offers an exciting, entertaining and eye-opening glimpse into a long-lost maritime past.