Many years have already been employed in collecting materials for this work, but hitherto time has been wanting for the study and elucidation of a subject which, from the nature of my avocations, can hardly fail to prove interesting to myself, whatever it may be to my readers. To trace the origin of navigation, and to detail the numerous steps by which the merchant vessels of the great trading nations of the world have reached their present state of perfection; to record those discoveries in science and art connected with navigation, which enable the mariner to cross the ocean without fear and with unerring certainty; to dilate upon those triumphs of man’s genius and skill whereby he can bid defiance to the elements; and to enter in these pages the names of the men who have benefited mankind by their maritime discoveries, or by affording greatly increased facilities for intercourse between nations, is to me a task of the most gratifying description. But as many of my readers may not take so lively an interest in a subject necessarily dry in its character and technical in its details, I shall endeavour to describe everything relating to shipping in clear and condensed language, so as to induce them, if possible, to accompany me in my researches; and it is to be hoped that at least the ships and commerce of the ancient Egyptians and Phœnicians, and of those nations which, like Carthage and Assyria, have long since passed away, may prove not uninteresting to the general public. Passing from very remote ages, I purpose to examine the maritime commerce and shipping of the different nations which flourished from about the time when, on the decline of the power of Rome, the Italian Republics arose; and thence through the Middle Ages, till Spain sent forth her celebrated Armada, to the period when Great Britain, slowly but surely extending her influence upon the ocean, claimed to be “Mistress of the Seas.” Considerable space must likewise be devoted to an account of the principal institutions connected with shipping, and to the vast changes which have taken place in the over-sea carrying trade since Vasco da Gama doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and Christopher Columbus discovered a new and now mighty world to the West. But the larger portion of this work will be devoted to the progress of Modern Shipping. Since the introduction of steam, the merchant navies of the world have increased to an enormous extent; and in comfort, beauty, and speed, the vessels of the present day immeasurably surpass those of any other period. Modern appliances in their propulsion, while altering the mode in which commercial pursuits are conducted, have also materially changed the seats and centres of maritime commerce. Changes such as these necessarily require to be fully described, and their results carefully recorded.