Book Review: Boats of the World by Sean McGrail

Topic & Content

Published in 2001, this is an archaeological survey/reference of early watercraft and boatbuilding techniques throughout the regions of the world from prehistory to the Middle Ages. The book is broadly organized as follows:

1. Sources and Themes
2. Egypt
3. Arabia
4. The Mediterranean
5. Atlantic Europe
6. India
7. Greater Australia
8. South-East Asia
9. Oceania
10. China
11. The Americas
12. Early Water Transport

Each chapter begins by discussing the overall geography and weather patterns that may have influenced seafaring in the region. This is followed by a lengthy discussion on boatbuilding and archaeological examples of excavated boats, as well as depictions of boats in artwork. The chapters usually end with a discussion on late-medieval boats (if evidence is available), or an examination of navigational techniques used by the people of the region.

Thesis

The thesis of this book is by no means groundbreaking, but it’s meant to be a history of watercraft around the world as it has developed over the millennia.

Author’s Background

According to the biographical blurb, Sean McGrail was the Chief Archaeologist at the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich from 1976 to 1986. He then worked as a professor of maritime archaeology at Oxford from 1986 to 1993. At the time of this book’s publication, he was serving as a visiting professor of archaeology at the University of Southampton.

Critical Observations

Positives

The book is a very detailed study of the various regions of the world and the development of watercraft within those regions. McGrail has clearly done his research, and the book is heavily laden with citations and has an extensive bibliography.

As an archaeological reference, McGrail discusses different types of early boats (bundled reeds, bark, log, rafts, plank, etc.) and how they were constructed with the resources that were in abundance in the region. The writing is very detailed and clear in its presentation. It can get somewhat technical, and it helps to have a basic understanding of the jargon related to marine architecture. Thankfully, there’s a glossary in the back of the book.

As an overall survey of boats throughout the world, this book is a great reference for those doing research.

Negatives

This book isn’t so much of a narrative history as it is an archaeological reference work. So if you’re expecting a historical narrative, you’re going to be disappointed. The writing of this book is fairly dry and it took me a while to read it. The other downside to the book’s readability is that it uses in-text citations, but that’s probably because it’s more of an archaeological reference, rather than a straight history book. Thus, the in-text citations can be a bit distracting if you’re not used to the style of citations used in this field.

McGrail notes that there’s a heavy bias towards European maritime archaeology, but that’s mostly because the Atlantic and Mediterranean regions contain the largest body of physical evidence. Additionally, some of the chapters don’t really discuss much in the way of medieval boatbuilding (due to lack of evidence). Given the lack of evidence, the chapters on Arabia, India, Greater Australia, South-East Asia, and Oceania are noticeably shorter than the rest, so it can be disappointing for those looking for information on boats in those regions beyond ancient times.

Evaluation (Does the content support the thesis?)

All in all, this is a good reference book for those interested in marine archaeology. While more than 20 years old now, it’s still a well-cited study of boatbuilding throughout the world. The writing isn’t terribly engaging, and this may not be the best book to read cover-to-cover, but as a reference, it holds up well.