A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks

by David Gibbins

From renowned underwater archaeologist David Gibbins comes an exciting and rich narrative of human history told through the archaeological discoveries of twelve shipwrecks across time.

The Viking warship of King Cnut the Great. Henry VIII's the Mary Rose. Captain John Franklin's doomed HMS Terror. The SS Gairsoppa, destroyed by a Nazi U-boat in the Atlantic during World War II.

Since we first set sail on the open sea, ships and their wrecks have been an inevitable part of human history. Archaeologists have made spectacular discoveries excavating these sunken ships, their protective underwater cocoon keeping evidence of past civilizations preserved. Now, for the first time, world renowned maritime archeologist David Gibbins ties together the stories of some of the most significant shipwrecks in time to form a single overarching narrative of world history.

A History of the World in 12 Shipwrecks is not just the story of those ships, the people who sailed on them, and the cargo and treasure they carried, but also the story of the spread of people, religion, and ideas around the world; it is a story of colonialism, migration, and the indominable human spirit that continues today. From the glittering Bronze Age, to the world of Caesar's Rome, through the era of the Vikings, to the exploration of the Arctic, Gibbins uses shipwrecks to tell all.

Drawing on decades of experience excavating shipwrecks around the world, Gibbins reveals the riches beneath the waves and shows us how the treasures found there can be a porthole to the past that tell a new story about the world and its underwater secrets.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Historical, World History, Audiobook, Adventure, Archaeology

304 pages, Paperback

First published February 8, 2024

About the author

Canadian-born underwater archaeologist and novelist. Gibbins learned to scuba dive at the age of 15 in Canada, and dived under ice, on shipwrecks and in caves while he was still at school. He has led numerous underwater archaeology expeditions around the world, including five seasons excavating ancient Roman shipwrecks off Sicily and a survey of the submerged harbour of ancient Carthage. In 1999-2000 he was part of an international team excavating a 5th century BC shipwreck off Turkey. His many publications on ancient shipwreck sites have appeared in scientific journals, books and popular magazines. Most recently his fieldwork has taken him to the Arctic Ocean, to Mesoamerica and to the Great Lakes in Canada.
After holding a Research Fellowship at Cambridge, he spent most of the 1990s as a Lecturer in the School of Archaeology, Classics and Oriental Studies at the University of Liverpool. On leaving teaching he become a novelist, writing archaeological thrillers derived from his own background. His novels have sold over two million copies and have been London Sunday Times and New York Times bestsellers. His first novel, Atlantis, published in the UK in 2005 and the US in September 2006, has been published in 30 languages and is being made into a TV miniseries; since then he has written five further novels, published in more than 100 editions internationally. His novels form a series based on the fictional maritime archaeologist Jack Howard and his team, and are contemporary thrillers involving a plausible archaeological backdrop.

Reviews

[LIsa Noell "Rocking the chutzpah!" · Rating 4 out of 5]

My thanks to St. Martin's Press, David Gibbins and Netgalley.
Lately it seems like these kind of books give me air. I'm happy as can be when I read tales like this. I've lately discovered "in my older years" what I love most. What I love is stories of ships, the people who helmed them and what fate befell them.
This book was fairly awesome!
If you're anything like me, then you've already read about these wrecks elsewhere, but I really did enjoy how the author pulled these stories together. Is it the history in 12 shipwrecks? No. Of course not. But, it's definitely worthy of consideration.

[K.J. Charles]

Great idea but the writing is painfully dry and unengaging. It's so far mostly potted histories of the various eras with particular reference to trade routes, where I was hoping for vivid descriptions of what diving a shipwreck is actually like, given the author has dived a lot of these. DNF at 30%

[Blaine DeSantis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Archaeology is one of the ways in which we learn from the past, and this discipline is highlighted in David Gibbins new book "A History of the World in 12 Shipwrecks." Gibbins is a gifted diver as well as historian, and all of those talents are put together to make a highly informative book in which he takes a look at 12 leading shipwrecks and what they have taught us about the world from the contents of those wrecks.
From the discovery of a bronze age ship that was plying the waters off of England in mid 1500 BC, to a shipwreck that occurred in 1941, the author takes us on a historical journey in which we learn as much if not more about history than we do about the wrecks themselves. How does one learn about the past? Through writings, paintings, sometimes word-of-mouth stories, but archaeology fills in a lot of the gaps and can tell us with greater precision, what was occurring at a specific point in history. There's no bias in the artifacts found in a shipwreck, and while not a complete picture of the world is found on a shipwreck, it does give us a microcosm of the world and Gibbins has done a fantastic job of documenting this. Divided into 12 individual chapters, this is the book that is filled with detail and can be read one chapter at a time. You could put it down because the next chapter is a completely different shipwreck having nothing to do with the prior discoveries. But if you have the time and the patience to read this book, you will marvel at how the contents of a boat can either affirm or change the way we think and how we look at matters. Some may ask how were they able to date a shipwreck to the mid 1500's BC. some artifacts may have been carbonated, but they also use a fascinating technique, called dendrology and are able to determine the age of the ship by the age of wood, and they can even tell us where the wood came from by using something like wood DNA! I was flabbergasted as I read so many of these stories. We discover an amphora mound outside of Rome that contains millions of pieces of discarded pottery from the height of the Roman Empire. Having been to Rome numerous times, that's not one of the highlights that they always show us, yet it is fascinating as the Colosseum itself. The amount and quantities of wine and olive oil brought to Rome or exported from Rome staggers the imagination and and from the cargo we get to realize how literate the people were in Roman times because they were manifests, markings and all of which had to have been read in order to make sure things were delivered to the right location. From the earliest of times we receive the international flavor of trade as those early shipwrecks have had their contents and artifacts traced too many locations in Europe, Africa, Asia, etc. it's mind-boggling. We also realize at one point that emperor Justinian was basically creating prefab churches. At the time the Roman Empire was based in Constantinople, Justinian was having marble columns, and altars mass produced, and then taken by boat to different ports in the Roman world where they were taken off the boat and assembled to create a new church. when you think of it, it's absolutely amazing that a boat that sailed in the Roman Empire was able to hold an excess of 100 tons of marble! There were so many little facts that I can't list them, but they make each and every chapter unique including the discovery on the HMS Terror, about to sit out to find the Northwest passage and which now rests beneath the sea and can only be investigated by using cameras, but the cameras bring us pictures the help us re-create the life and times of that shipwreck and has expanded our knowledge.
Now many people may find this book hard to read, and it certainly is not easy, but it is one that is worthwhile. As I said chapter by chapter read by bit and he will see a world of history that has been discovered and interpreted through these 12 shipwrecks. It's a marvelous journey, and there's probably no better person than David Gibbins to be our host!

[Brendan (History Nerds United) · Rating 3 out of 5]

On the face of it, this book is right up my alley. Shipwrecks! History! Unfortunately, David Gibbins just misses the mark a bit too much in A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks.

The premise is good enough. Take a list of wrecks and then explain the history around them. More than half of them Gibbins has personally dived on. Gibbins then gives a wider historical context around these ships and there you go. Easy peasy.

I had to think quite a while about why this one wasn't a home run for me. One of the issues which jumped out at me is that the wrecks can often feel tacked onto a very quick (relatively speaking) rundown of the history in the time period. I wanted more on the sunken treasures. The chapters where Gibbins was actually diving on the wrecks were usually the better chapters. Gibbins also writes well so even when I didn't love a chapter, it was still good, just not great.

The other problem is that since this is effectively 12 vignettes, each chapter must stand on its own. Gibbins accomplishes this, but he does it too well. It felt like you could completely skip a ship and it wouldn't matter. The book was not cohesive enough because sometimes Gibbins talks about how the ship sank, or the people on it, but other times he approaches it completely differently.

My criticisms make it seem like the book is something you should definitely skip, but it very well may be a matter of taste in the storytelling. You won't throw the book away in frustration, but you may not like it as much as you hoped, like me.

(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and St. Martin's Press.)

[Hannah · Rating 1 out of 5]

I expected this book to be more captivating. It was a dry textbook. And I was really surprised that publisher allowed the book to be published with such a Eurocentric perspective, given it was published this year. It still refers to Columbus having discovered the Americas as well as other explorers. Left a really bad taste in my mouth.

[Hannah Jones-Nelson · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. Got 30% of the way through and just couldn't handle it. Awful narrator. I was so excited to listen after learning about this book, but I could barely remember anything it said, couldn't focus at all, and wanted to pull my hair out listening to this guy talk. I don't like having this as a "read" book because I didn't finish, but I needed the world to know not to pick up the audiobook 😂

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have a weakness for books that advertise themselves as “A History of the World in [cardinal number] [noun]”. I have read a book about Six Glasses, want to read a book about Nine Mysterious Scripts, and listened to a BBC podcast about 100 Objects. But this particular combination of cardinal number and noun did not really reach out and grab my undivided attention, although I am at a loss to explain why.

The writing is certainly clear enough in most of the book, although occasionally you run across a sentence which might be improved by an accompanying illustration, like: “The Langdon Bay assemblage includes so-called ‘palstaves’, which were cast with flanges to keep the wooden haft in place and a side-loop for twine or rawhide to bind the head to the bindle” (Kindle location 304).

I thought that the phrase “we shall see” appears too frequently for my liking (often in the phrase “as we shall see”). I tend to think: don't tell me I'll see it, just show it to me. However, my Kindle search function tells me that it appears 16 times in a 384-page book, which I guess is not so bad. Still, I found it distracting.

The scholarship seems excellent, although I have one factual nit-pick, which is (at location 686): “... Homer, who wrote in the Greek language …”. I was, at the same time I was reading this book, reading a book that presents a great deal of evidence that Homer (whether person or committee) did not write in any language, although some disagree and it seems unlikely that the question will ever be resolved completely.

I guess I was hoping for a little more drama in the author's personal narrative. The author is apparently an accomplished and sought-after diver, and works with various impressive-sounding government, academic, and private institutions to explore shipwrecks and bring them up to where the rest of us can get a look at them. Everyone is very professional, apparently, which is admirable but doesn't make for such a compelling read. Didn't anybody ever disagree? No oversized egos? No bureaucratic bungling? No comic moments? No ridiculous mistakes? Including stories like this in your narrative is what brings a non-fiction book alive, in my sight, but there wasn't anything like that in this book.

This book was conceived and executed in a professional manner, but it just didn't entertain me in the way I wanted to be entertained. Still, it had a lot of interesting information.

Download a .pdf containing some cool color photos that will appear in the book here.

I received a free electronic advance review copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

[Trish · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book and I did not have a good start, but as I mentioned in my status update(s), that was entirely the audio production's fault. How anyone could actually publish and sell (!) something with such poor production quality in 2024 is beyond me.

I'm happy to say that the book itself is very good though!

As the author clearly states in the preface, this book does not claim to be comprehensive about any of the periods the ships are from. Instead, it wants to give further insight into certain eras of human civilisation by way of showing what was found in the wrecks and putting the findings (cargo as well as history of the ships themselves) into context.

For details on the ships the author talks about here at length, please refer to my status updates where you can also find useful links to the author's website where he posted additional pictures and information to each chapter (often linking to museum sites and research papers, too).

I liked how enthusiastic the author was. One could also tell that he really knows what he's talking about. Not just like a scientist examining wreckage but also like a passionate diver who was there when certain discoveries were made. It immensely helped, I think, when he described certain scenes.

Really cool angle from which to contextualize people and the times they lived in as well as humanity's progress. And it gave some highly interesting stories about certain events.

[Ron · Rating 1 out of 5]

I audio booked this one, and the narrater has the most annoying diction of any performer I have ever encountered. I could not stand it for more than 10 minutes.

[Gi V · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just. Can't. The narrator. Reads. In such a. Staccato. Way. That I was. Unable. To get past. Chapter 1.

[Ula Tardigrade · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid history book, looking at different stages of human civilisation through specific moments, with the eponymous shipwrecks serving as time capsules - both literally and figuratively. I particularly enjoyed the passages where the author shares his own experiences as a maritime archaeologist, but be aware that this is not a scientific travelogue full of underwater adventures. However, if you are interested in global history, I think you will find this volume compelling.

Thanks to the publisher, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

[Sam Wescott]

Had to DNF the audiobook after the prologue because of stilted, mechanical narrator performance. Weird pauses and misplaced emphasis within sentences made it unlistenable, unfortunately. Bummed because the topic sounded so interesting.

[Christopher Jay]

DNF at 31%. Do not listen to the audiobook! The concept is quite interesting, while the content itself is just ok. This is one of those books that would normally be right up my alley. The writing was good, but often felt rambly. I feel like I would have enjoyed the physical or ebook versions somewhat but the audiobook was terrible and often sounded like AI (I had to look up the voice actor to make sure he was real).

[Kaila]

I have never abandoned an audio book so quickly. I made it about 75 seconds.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a cool book, a very cool way to organize information. It's about a lot more than just shipwrecks. In a way, it almost reads as a history of the world, funneled through these shipwrecks as a way to get at the most important facts. Interesting things covered beyond sea-going vessels: where much of the tin came from that helped make the bronze of the Bronze Age (my personal favorite tidbit), the early languages of the Mediterranean and Middle East, who the Sea Peoples likely were and their impact on the end of the Bronze Age, the battles of the Greco-Persian wars in the fifth century bce, the founding and general history of the Roman Republic, the military successes of Justinian's general Belisarius, the origins of Sinbad the Sailor, the history of tea drinking, the ins and outs of the medieval ivory trade, the reach of the Dutch East India Company, and the dangers of the water just off the coast of the most southerly point of the British mainland.

My favorites of the shipwrecks included were "Early sea traders of prehistory in the 2nd millennium BC” "11th century AD Viking seafaring and voyages of discovery," "The Santo Christo (1667): lost masterpieces of the Dutch Golden Age," and "HMS Terror (1848): to the limit of endurance at the ends of the earth."

There were a few times when I was somewhat bored, usually because the time period and place or subject covered was not one in which I'm particularly interested, but usually I had no trouble staying engaged. It took me longer than usual to read this though, because some of the chapter ignited an interest in me that I couldn't ignore. After the early chapters, I had to read a book about the Trojan War. After the Vikings chapter, I had to read a book about William the Conquerer. The mention of Ahmad ibn Fadlan made me want to find a biography of him. After the 1667 chapter, I had to read a book about the Dutch Masters. And then I couldn't start the next chapter until I'd finished these sister reads, as I was worried a new topic would ignite in me. The best type of nonfiction is the kind that makes you want to read other things because what's within is so stimulating.

I received this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Eli - Bookworm & Vine · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars. Definitely a little dry early on, would have liked more info on the wrecks than some of the rabbit holes that the author went down.

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’d never thought about marine archaeology until now. The shipwrecks that the author investigates are from Ancient Greece to WW2.

[Kelli Santistevan · Rating 1 out of 5]

From renowned underwater archaeologist David Gibbins comes an exciting and rich narrative of human history told through the archaeological discoveries of twelve shipwrecks across time.

Thank you St. Martin’s Press & Netgalley for sending me a review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review! I wanted to read this book because I like the water and the ocean. I watched the movie Titanic about the shipwreck that happened and I enjoyed that movie but I wouldn’t watch it again because it’s long. I decided to DNF this book after reading 69 pages because the way this is written is very dry. It’s written like a history lesson and it doesn’t have any pictures in here. In my opinion, I would prefer to watch a documentary about shipwrecks instead of reading about them because it’s an interesting subject. I don’t know anything about it and I like watching documentaries.

[Kimberly Swejkoski · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was so informative and well-researched. David Gibbins brings twelve different periods of time to life and then weaves them all together. I learned quite a bit from this book, even about historical periods that I have already thoroughly researched previously. David Gibbins is such a wonderful writer as well, and each chapter felt more like a story to me than just a description of the people and state of the world during the era of each wreck. Fans of history and wrecks should definitely check out this book, you will not be disappointed.

Thank you to NetGalley and the St. Martin's Press for providing an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

[V. Arrow · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 rounded up. The title of this book promised to be everything I love and then some, but... first off, there are no shipwrecks in this book. There's a guy scuba diving through wreckage. Which, fine, semantics, I guess, but ultimately one that completely changes the frame of the text. Shipwrecks are compelling for their distillation of human drama and empathy and selfishness and pathos and heroism and cowardice and the sheer miracle of being such tiny creatures on the endless sea; the exploration of wreckage is an intellectual affair, a forensic study of setting without characters. It's not that this book isn't interesting, it's just that it isn't what it claims to be.

[Will · Rating 1 out of 5]

Super fascinating idea for a book. I wanted to like it and it sounded like something I would typically love. However, this was told in the driest way possible and included a lot of personal details from the author’s dives on the wrecks. All in all, it read like a long-winded textbook and didn’t make the subject matter interesting in the slightest.

[Janet · Rating 1 out of 5]

Shockingly dull. I picked this up because of the beautiful cover and the intriguing premise, but it was a real struggle to get through. The author throws in tons of random detail and there's no narrative flow or attempt at the kind of storytelling that brings history to life. A real disappointment for me.

[Francis Pellow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting way to present pivotal parts of history. I would like another please.

[Sarah Odonnell · Rating 1 out of 5]

I would maybe be able to handle his insane narcissism if it wasn’t so dry and unengaging

[Melisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderfully descriptive look into the fates and history of very different shipwrecks. I enjoyed the background of the writer, the description of the world and lives of the people in the wrecks, and the details of what was found. everyone who enjoys marine archeology, history, and shipwrecks will like this book.

[Mairyn Schoshinski]

This was a bit dense for me. But some bits were interesting and I learned that I will never be a diver because the thought of coming across a marble arch or any sort of statue underwater is too much for me.

[Laurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

*** Happy Publication Day ***

What an interesting and entertaining way to learn about or brush up on history. I had no idea so much knowledge about our past could be gained from the objects found on a shipwreck.

From a Bronze Age ship uncovered in Dover to a World War II ship, underwater archeologist David Gibbins does an excellent job of tying our past and present together in an informative narrative. What could easily have been a dry rehash of history is instead an engaging look, through an archeologist's eye, at different eras in history and what artifacts tell us about our past. Even though I enjoyed the ancient shipwrecks more than the recently uncovered ones, I found all twelve enlightening.

If you like history and archeology, I think you will enjoy this book.

Thank you, NetGalley and St. Martin's Press, for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. The publication date is April 2, 2024.

[Patrick Wikstrom · Rating 1 out of 5]

This seemed interesting and was compellingly reviewed so I put in a library request and waited. After 3.5 months I broke down and bought it through e-bay or Amazon. I was excited by the possibilities and the premise but it came up short almost right away. Although the author had undoubtedly done extensive research around each wreck it’s like he haphazardly included every scrap of information he ever obtained. What I didn’t get was any of the excitement I usually feel reading about wreck diving, ships sinking, and marine archeology. Sort of unfocused writing style. 1*

[Laurii · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's a lot of interesting information here, but the writing is so dry. So so dry.

I really disliked the narrator, so I would definitely recommend the print book over the audiobook.

[Kristi Lamont]

BOOK REPORT
Received a complimentary copy of A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks by David Gibbins from St. Martin’s Press/NetGalley, for which I am appreciative, in exchange for a fair and honest review. Scroll past the BOOK REPORT section for a cut-and-paste of the DESCRIPTION of it from them if you want to read my thoughts on the book in the context of that summary.

While David Gibbins obviously knows his stuff and is a very clear communicator, this book just wasn’t for me. They style was too much like that found in a college textbook, and I found myself annoyed with how much of the content seemed to be about hypothetical scenarios.

I read the first chapter, then skimmed the second, then flipped through the third (well, if one can “flip through” an electronic chapter) before calling it quits.

I’m sure there are plenty of folks out there who will find this an excellent entry into its field, though.

DESCRIPTION
From renowned underwater archaeologist David Gibbins comes an exciting and rich narrative of human history told through the archaeological discoveries of twelve shipwrecks across time.

The Viking warship of King Cnut the Great. Henry VIII's the Mary Rose. Captain John Franklin's doomed HMS Terror. The SS Gairsoppa, destroyed by a Nazi U-boat in the Atlantic during World War II.

Since we first set sail on the open sea, ships and their wrecks have been an inevitable part of human history. Archaeologists have made spectacular discoveries excavating these sunken ships, their protective underwater cocoon keeping evidence of past civilizations preserved. Now, for the first time, world renowned maritime archeologist David Gibbins ties together the stories of some of the most significant shipwrecks in time to form a single overarching narrative of world history.

A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks is not just the story of those ships, the people who sailed on them, and the cargo and treasure they carried, but also the story of the spread of people, religion, and ideas around the world; it is a story of colonialism, migration, and the indominable human spirit that continues today. From the glittering Bronze Age, to the world of Caesar's Rome, through the era of the Vikings, to the exploration of the Arctic, Gibbins uses shipwrecks to tell all.

Drawing on decades of experience excavating shipwrecks around the world, Gibbins reveals the riches beneath the waves and shows us how the treasures found there can be a porthole to the past that tell a new story about the world and its underwater secrets.