A Royal Navy 28 gun frigate c1794

Maritime history

Robert Ballard with an image of Titanic’s upper deck

TitanicWhen & where was the wreck finally discovered?

Newspaper boy with news of the Titanic disaster, 14 April 1912

TitanicWhat happened after the sinking?

A depiction of Titanic’s final moments, as the ship sinks and passengers watch from a lifeboat

TitanicWhen did it sink & how long did it take?

US socialite Margaret Brown, who posthumously became known as the ‘Unsinkable Molly Brown’ following her Titanic experiences.

Titanic8 stories of passengers who sailed on the liner

Titanic in dry doc before it was launched

TitanicWhen and how was the ship built?

A vintage photo of the RMS Titantic departing Southampton on 10 April 1912

Your history guide to RMS Titanic, plus 12 fascinating facts about the disaster

A painting of the Coniston, a ship that befell tragedy

Q&AWhat is the greatest mishap caused by someone not realising the clocks had moved forward or back?

Queen Anne’s Revenge: why was Blackbeard's flagship named after the Stuart queen?

Blackbeard, real name Edward Teach, seen standing on a dock with fuses in his beard

Blackbeard: dastardly sea-devil or kind pirate?

Barbary pirates Oruç and Hayreddin Barbarossa, the siblings who famously captured Algiers from the Spanish in 1516

Barbary pirates: the Muslim corsairs and their role in the slave trade

Henry Avery stands on the shore holding a cutlass, while his ship Fancy battles the Ganj-i-Sawai in the background

The real pirates of the Caribbean: your guide to Nassau's pirate republic

Henry Morgan on ship's deck in battle taking a hostage

Q&ADid pirates really live on the island of Tortuga?

Gentleman pirate Stede Bonnet is hanged from the gallows

Hunting pirates: how piracy's golden age came to an end

Female pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read holding cutlasses

Anne Bonny and Mary Read: the deadly female pirate duo

Map showing Sir Francis Drake's privateering fleet attacking Ribeira Grande the capital of Santiago

Privateers, buccaneers and corsairs: why not all pirates were created equal

A pirate ship flying the Jolly Roger closes in on another vessel during a storm

The golden age of piracy: when pirates ruled the waves

Captain Edward Teach, better known as 'Blackbeard', a pirate who plundered the coasts of the West Indies, North Carolina and Virginia. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The most famous and despicable pirates from history

The Jolly Roger, a black flag showing a skuyll and crossbones. (Photo by Henry Guttmann Collection/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Q&ADid all pirates fly the Jolly Roger?

A pirate uses his cutlass to force a bound and blindfolded man to walk the plank

Q&AWas walking the plank a real pirate punishment?

Pirates burying a treasure chest on a beach as their captain looks on

Q&AX marks the spot: did pirates bury their treasure?

A 17th century sketch of a peg-legged pirate walking with the aid of crutches

Q&ADid any real pirates wear eyepatches or have peg legs?

Photo of tall ship

Q&AWho do we say 'shot across the bows'?

The Age of Sail: everything you wanted to know

Admiral Lord Nelson: 10 days that created a legend

Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton

Ernest Shackleton, the great Antarctic explorer of the Heroic Age

Winston Churchill (left) with Charles de Gaulle, c1944. The British prime minister encouraged Vichy’s colonies to rally to the Free French leader. (Getty Images)

Operation Ironclad: the WW2 battle for Madagascar

A French manuscript from c1100 shows Viking warriors sailing to Brittany. The Viking Age touched all areas of life and can still be felt today

What if...The Vikings had never left their homelands?

Engraving showing flying fish leaping over a Spanish trade ship

Winds of change: how the discovery of trade winds powered Europe's empires

Historian Saul David

Saul David“It was astonishing bravery – and cold-blooded bravery, too”

Boats clash at sea in this illustration of the 480 BC battle of Salamis, fought between a Persian army led by King Xerxes I and the Greek army led by Themistocles

Salamis, 480 BC: a horror at sea for the Persian empire