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.
Meteorology for Seafarers, 6th Edition
£70.00
Meteorology for Seafarers is a technical book which aims to explain the complexities of the atmosphere and provide the information needed for professional seafarers aspiring to first class certificates of competency.
Tugs and Towing Around Britain
£15.99
The book features previously unpublished photographs from the author’s collection accompanied by informative captions.
The Rescue Ships and The Convoys
£25.00
Book of the month December 2024. The Rescue Ships and The Convoys : Saving Lives During The Second World War.
Blowing Hot and Cold
£19.99
Thermotank and the Story of Air Conditioning at Sea. The Book of the month November 2024.
Sailing Ships from Plastic Kits
£25.00
Despite their ease of assembly, plastic models of sailing ships, like the ships themselves, are complicated to build. Heavily illustrated in colour throughout, this book is an ideal addition to the purchase of any plastic ship kit. It describes and demonstrates techniques unique to plastic sailing ship models, allowing the construction of authentic and personally satisfying models.
Sea, Sand and, Katrina
£9.99
The novel follows the challenge of getting "Princess Katrina", seaworthy for the cruising season by Ben Sharpe, a former merchant navy officer and his family who live onboard.
Murder on the Holigan Express
£5.95
Murder on the Holigan Express: It's a Ferry Story
Ocean Liners: A New History
£25.00
Nautilus Telegraph's book of the month for January 2025
Operation Title: Sink the Tirpitz
£22.00
This is a readable and at times moving account of Operation Title, the attempt to disable the German battleship Tirpitz in Norway using human torpedoes or “Chariots”.
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.
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.
Captain James Cook and the Search for Antarctica
£25.00
Anyone interested in studying maritime history should be happy to read this gripping and scholarly study of Captain James Cook’s 18th century voyages in search of Antarctica.
The SS Terra Nova (1884-1943)
£20.00
SS Terra Nova was most famous for being the vessel to carry the ill-fated 1910 polar expedition led by Robert Falcon Scott, but the story of this memorable ship, built in wood to enable flexibility in the ice, continued until 1943, when she sank off Greenland.
Garnet and Petunia: the Russians
£6.99
Captain William Gilbert is back with his latest self-published works of fiction, a racy detective trilogy set in the seedy back streets and strip joints of Bangkok.
The Seafarer’s Mind: The Questions I've Always Wanted to Ask
£5.00
Nautilus Telegraph's Book of the Month for September 2020.
Merchant Navy Survival Guide: Survive and thrive on your first ship
£6.99
Nautilus Telegraph's Book of the Month for September 2020. It is a compact introduction to commercial seafaring that all aspiring maritime professionals should read.
A Guide to Port and Terminal Management
£50.00
By Captain Bill Chalmers, FCIS
On the Line: The Story of the Greenwich Meridian
£8.99
The Royal Observatory in Greenwich is a powerful historic reminder of navigation and timekeeping. Home to the international measurements of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and Prime Meridian (0˚ longitude), the imaginary line that runs from Pole to Pole.