Maritime history

Rebecca Simon responds to your questions on the ‘golden age’ of piracy, when bands of buccaneers menaced the high seas, preying on merchant vessels.

The golden age of piracy: everything you wanted to know

The crew of SMS King in its home port following the battle of the Skagerrak, June 1916. (Photo by A Renard/ullstein image via Getty Images)

First World War

Jutland: the battle that won the First World War

A 19th-century engraving depicts a member of the crew of the 'Mignonette'

Cannibalism at sea: the starving Victorian sailors who ate a cabin boy

The German battleship Bismarck of the German Kriegsmarine during early World War II

Second World War

Bismarck: why was the WW2 German battleship so feared? Plus 9 things you didn’t know about its only mission

Explorer Ferdinand Magellan

Dire straits: the story of Ferdinand Magellan’s fatal voyage of discovery

A German sailor signals Bismarck during manoeuvres in the western Atlantic, some time before the British gave chase. The maimed battleship sank below the waves on 27 May 1941

Second World War

The sinking of the Bismarck: a cat and mouse chase across the Atlantic

Mutiny at sea: the forgotten story of murder and brutality aboard HMS Wager

The exact location at which John Cabot came ashore in North America is the subject of debate. (Photo by © CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

A tale of Tudor travel: John Cabot’s voyage to America

A union flag flown on HMS Queen Charlotte at the battle known as the Glorious First of June, 1794

Q&A When was the Union Jack or Union flag created?

Emma Stonex talks about the strange story of the Flannan Isles Lighthouse keepers, who vanished in December 1900. (Image by Getty Images)

The mystery of the vanishing lighthouse keepers

In 1845, the Franklin Expedition sailed into the Canadian arctic and never returned. Andrew Lambert explores the real history that inspired the BBC drama The Terror. (Image by Getty Images)

What happened to the Franklin Expedition? The real mystery behind The Terror

'Pirate queen' Grace O'Malley. (Illustration by Sue Gent for BBC History Revealed)

Grace O’Malley: the fearless pirate queen of Ireland

A 19th-century depiction of HMS Erebus in the ice, by François Etienne Musin. What exactly happened to the ship and its crew remains a mystery. (Picture by Alamy)

The Franklin Expedition: what happened on the ill-fated Victorian voyage?

Charles Spencer on the HistoryExtra podcast

The shipwreck that sunk a royal dynasty

An Australian Sea Shanty band, c1988

A brief history of sea shanties