The disposal of human waste is critical, especially where humans are in close quarters. As Joe J. Simmons III shows in this redesigned volume, information about this vital function on ships of the great era of sail is amazingly scarce. In Those Vulgar Tubes, Simmons has collected and interpreted the available archaeological and iconographical evidence, providing historians and anthropologists with a rich view of a historically censored subject.
In his introduction, Simmons discusses evidence of what methods early sailors used for relief. Subsequent chapters focus on each century of...

Throughout its existence as a bustling center of seafaring and trade, Venice has loomed large in maritime history. Its location, its governmental policies, and the skills of its citizens made Venice a dominant military power and a major player in international trade by the Middle Ages. Yet little is known of what made that military and trade prowess possible--the early seagoing vessels of Venice. Remains of its ships and boats are few, and written records are rare.
Artistic representations of Venetian ships and boats can offer distinctive clues unavailable in other forms of evidence. To...

The first Western steamboat was built in 1811 in Pittsburgh, and thousands more were constructed in the years before the Civil War. These waterborne vehicles helped define the nineteenth-century trans-Appalachian West. Decades of incremental changes created a distinctive watercraft, and the steamboat became perfectly suited to the conditions of the Western rivers, transforming the West from a wilderness into a place of economic significance. In The Western River Steamboat, nautical archaeologist Adam I. Kane traces the development of this once commonplace vessel. Kane describes the importance...

In Near Eastern studies, it has come to be accepted by many as fact that predynastic trade routes connected Egypt and Mesopotamia. The existence of such trade routes, however, has until recently largely been based upon the two regions' shared influences rather than on archaeological evidence.
In "From Egypt to Mesopotamia, " Samuel Mark ferrets out the two possible trade routes between these two vastly different cultures. Ancient shipwreck sites and recently discovered artifacts allow Mark to delineate avenues of trade between Egypt and Mesopotamia. Taking to task previous studies that...

All wooden ships leak, a stark fact that has terrified sailors since the earliest days of ocean travel. Maritime historical literature is filled with horrific descriptions of being aboard a slowly sinking ship. Starting from this human perspective, then, Thomas J. Oertling traces the five-hundred-year evolution of a seemingly mundane but obviously important piece of seafaring equipment--and tells the story of nautical innovation--in this one of a kind history of the ship bilge pump. Beginning with early sixteenth-century documents that recorded bilge pump design and installation and ending at...