With 17 easy-to-do experiments and 300 exciting pictures, this is the story of transportation on water: the vessels, the people and the technology. It features amazing information about every type of vehicle - from canoes, fishing trawlers and ferries, to warships, submarines and hovercraft. It explains how ships work, with the help of exciting step-by-step experiments to do at home or school. You can build a model reed boat, test which hull shapes move the fastest through water, power a propeller with a rubber-band engine, and make a navigation light. It captures the thrills and spectacle of life and work at sea, in more than 300 dramatic photographs and detailed illustrations. By inventing ways to travel on water, people have been able to see and trade with new lands, conquer new territories, fight great sea battles and enjoy new sports. This book will help you to understand why ships have played such an important part in human history.With the aid of cross-section illustrations and simple experiments to do at home, you will discover how vessels stay afloat, how a sail works, what keeps a submarine underwater, how a hovercraft skims on air, the elements of navigation, and much more.