Gibbins, David. A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks. New York: St. Martin's Press,
2024. ISBN: 9781250325372
Who is not intrigued at exploring a shipwreck? Come on, there might be treasure! Or at least very cool stuff, right? Well, David Gibbins, an archeologist and diver, strongly believes that the stuff found in a shipwreck reflects the trade history and economic environment at the time the ship went down. In A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks, he provides the reader a chance to explore that history.
The first shipwreck was found in Dover during a excavation below the road. This boat was used to trade across the Channel during the middle of the Bronze age (about 1550 B.C.). The next shipwreck comes from the Mediterranean coast of Turkey from the time of Tutankhamun or Nefertiti based on a gold scarab found in the wreck. Also in the wreck were copper and tin ingots, jars of terebinth resin, glass ingots, various Cypriot dining dishes, and ivory from elephants and hippopotamus. The third wreck was also off of Turkey, but on the Aegean coast and dated to be from the classical age of Greece. The wreck had 196 wine amphoras and associated drinking-ware.
Wreck number four was a cargo ship with olive oil and fish sauce from A.D. 200 during the reign of Septimius Severus off the coast of Sicily right near where the author's grandfather had landed in WWII. Wreck number five was also off the coast of Sicily filled with prefabricated marble elements for a church sent out from Constantinople by Emperor Justinian in the 6th Century A.D. For wreck number six, the reader travels to Indonesia to explore a wreck that could have been featured in the tales of Sinbad the Sailor. The wreck had 57,000 Tang Dynasty Chinese bowls created for export to Abbasid Persia along with other cargo.
Next David Gibbins uses several Norse ships found in scattered locations to talk about the trade, explorations, and conquests made by the Vikings that culminated in the invasion of England in 1066 A.D. Wreck number eight looks at the sinking (1545 A.D.) and recovery of The Mary Rose, King Henry the VIII's flagship. Wreck number nine has Gibbins diving on the Mullion Pin Wreck (1667 - Santo Christo de Castello) off Cornwall and discussing the cargo lost in that wreck which included lost paintings by Rembrandt van Rijn, thousands of brass clothing pins, spices, hides, and other trade goods.
Wreck number ten was The Royal Anne Galley (1721) which sank off Lizards Peninsula in Cornwall while conveying the new governor of Barbados and then off to pursue pirates such as Bartholomew Roberts. Wreck number eleven has Gibbins returning to Canada to dive on the HMS Terror which sank in 1848 as part of the John Franklin expedition disaster. Wreck number 12 covers the story of SS Gairsoppa which was sunk in 1941 by a U-Boat while carrying 17 tons of silver from India to Great Britain.
In each chapter of A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks, David Gibbins provides the reader a chance to experience the thrill of undersea exploration while providing a context for the wreck and its place in world history. So read this title and find out for yourself!
