Nautilus Bookshop
Welcome to the Nautilus Bookshop – a collection of great reads to enjoy at sea and ashore. A partnership between Marine Society and Nautilus International, the bookshop stocks recent releases on a range of maritime topics, including ship histories, seafarer memoirs, studies of the Merchant Navy in wartime and even the occasional nautical novel.
The Book of the Month will feature a special discount during its respective month. All the books here have been reviewed in the Nautilus Telegraph, and new titles are added each month.
If you have a recently-published maritime book that you would like the Nautilus Telegraph to consider for review, please email: [email protected]
Featured products
Hello Sailor! The hidden history of gay life at sea
£38.00
When gays had to be closeted, ships were the only places where homosexual men could not only be out but also camp. And on some liners to the sun and the New World, queens and butches had a ball. They sashayed and minced their way across the world's oceans.
Pulling Together: The Making of a Global Maritime Trade Union
£19.99
The Book of the Month January 2024. This in-depth history will be of great interest to anyone with an interest in maritime or trade union history. The history of Nautilus is also of relevance to all unions organising in an increasingly globalised and unstable labour market. Ilustrated with 50b/w and 20 colour photos.
Tugs and Towing Around Britain
£15.99
The book features previously unpublished photographs from the author’s collection accompanied by informative captions.
Ocean Liners: A New History
£25.00
Nautilus Telegraph's book of the month for January 2025
Reeds Astro Navigation Tables 2025
£27.00 £30.00
10% OFF. This is the established book of annual astro-navigation tables compiled specifically for the needs of boaters.
Ship of Lost Souls: The Tragic Wreck of the Steamship Valencia
£25.00
NOT YET PUBLISHED. EXPECTED IN FEBRUARY 2025. The Book of the Month February 2025.
Titanic Legacy The Captain, The Daughter and The Spy
£25.00
Book of the Month June 2025
Lusitania: An Illustrated Biography: Life of A Greyhound
£36.00 £40.00
The Book of the Month April 2025.
The QE2 in the Falkands War
£25.00
The QE2 in the Falklands War : Troopship to the South Atlantic Book of the Month May 2025
The True Transatlantic Super-Liners
£30.00
The True Transatlantic Super-Liners : An Exclusive Class from Imperator to QM2
Britain and the Ocean Road : Shipwrecks and People, 1297-1825
£15.99
Nautilus Telegraph's Book of the Month for January 2021.
A Knot a Day
£16.99
This beautifully produced compendium gives you a knot challenge for every day of the year. With hundreds to choose from, all colour coded by use, you can work through the book from start to finish, gradually building on your knowledge as you go, or alternatively dipping in and out for your daily knotting fix.
Bound for the East Indies
£16.00
The loss of East Indiaman HCS Halsewell in January 1786 touched the very heart of the British nation.
Sietas and its Ships (Part 1)
£16.50
In this book Bernard concentrates on cargo ships, but other types also appear to illustrate the variety of ships that were built.
The Battle of the Atlantic
£14.99
It’s a thorough work with useful charts and graphs, an interesting selection of photos and a good index. In addition to the facts and figures, Ireland provides analysis and insight, notably arguing provocatively that ‘the situation was never as parlous nor the struggle so evenly balanced as was perceived at the time and has consistently been described since’. It’s a stance that may not prove popular in the Merchant Navy community, but the book is worth a read nevertheless, and readers can make up their own minds after giving Ireland’s arguments a hearing.
Gangway A Life at Sea
£13.99
Simon Quail’s Gangway stands out for the quality of its writing as well as its tales of maritime adventure. This well-crafted fourth edition now comes with photographs and technical details of all the ships on which the author sailed, so it’s a good moment to pick up a copy if you haven’t read the memoir before.
Sons of the Waves: The Common Seaman in the Heroic Age of Sail
£12.99
Nautilus Telegraph's Book of the Month for December 2020.
The Weather Handbook, 4th Edition
£16.99
The Essential Guide to How Weather is Formed and Develops
The Lancastria Tragedy: Sinking and Cover-Up: June 1940
£14.99
On 15 June 1940, the British Admiralty launched Operation Ariel – a rescue effort in western France that followed the Dunkirk evacuations. Over the course of 10 days, Allied ships took terrible risks to snatch more than 500,000 civilian refugees and British soldiers from the grasp of advancing German forces.
Dunkirk Evacuation Operation Dynamo: Nine Days that Saved an Army
£15.99
This image-led title was produced to mark the 80th anniversary of the remarkable evacuation of more than a third of a million troops from the Normandy beaches. It highlights the ‘brilliant impromptu organisation’ to assemble a fleet of ferries, fishing vessels, coasters and other small craft to carry out the rescue work over a frantic nine-day period from 27 May to 4 June 1940.
Spoils of War: The Fate of Enemy Fleets after the Two World Wars
£35.00
Nautilus Telegraph's Book of the Month for November 2020. This meticulously researched and very well-produced book examines the fate of many scores of ships seized from the losing sides in both world wars.
The Ocean Dove
£9.99
Here’s a very credible thriller that demonstrates just how vulnerable the industry would be to a maritime 9/11-style attack.