a history of the world in twelve shipwreckS

An Economist Best Book of Jan-July 2024

A Listener Best Book of 2024

This page contains extensive background material and images for my book A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks, published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in the UK and by St Martin’s Press in the US. Each of the twelve wrecks has a separate page linked through the images below, and there is also a page with bibliography. The pages on the wrecks are meant to complement the text, providing further sources online as well as images to add to the photographs that are published in the book. I’ll also provide updates on new excavations and research as it happens, including several of the sites investigated under my direction that are ongoing projects.

The book was published in 2024 in hardback, trade paperback, ebook and audiobook, and in 2025 in mass-market paperback – the UK edition in February and the US edition planned for the autumn. These are available on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com and from many other booksellers.  I’ll post the covers of editions in other languages at the bottom of this page as they are published.

Reviews

‘Gibbins' remarkable research will grant both maritime and general historians a deeper perspective on how our world developed.’ ― BOOKLIST

‘A well-informed and dynamic narrator, Gibbins glides breezily between stories of his scuba dives and quotes from medieval Chinese poetry. History buffs will find this smooth sailing.’ ― PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

‘A real-life Indiana Jones takes readers on a dive through these underwater museums, revealing the sunken secrets of the past... Prepare to be flabbergasted by the treasures Gibbins uncovers and by the stories they represent.’ ― THE TIMES

‘David Gibbins’s fascinating exploration of historic shipwrecks … conveys unimaginable courage in tales of people pushing beyond their reach’ ― THE OBSERVER

‘Engrossing … Gibbins is the ideal person to tell the story of shipwrecks. He is a distinguished underwater archaeologist, a veteran of thousands of dives and a bestselling novelist whose narrating skills are here harnessed to fact rather than fiction’ ― THE DAILY MAIL

‘Fascinating... he offers wonderful material, well researched and placed in its wider context, illuminating the history of trade and warfare from unaccustomed angles.’ ― SPECTATOR

‘This excellent, endlessly interesting book …  richly detailed, often spellbinding narratives … mesmerising … beautifully written’ ― THE IRISH INDEPENDENT

‘An imaginative and engrossing trip through three millennia, and a book that fully lives up to its bold title’  ―THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

‘Gibbins writes with great erudition and interest … Like one of his wreck sites, Gibbins’s book glitters with such treasures’ ― LITERARY REVIEW

‘To make history and archaeology read like a thriller while being factually accurate is a rare skill indeed, and I have never seen it done better’ ― SCUBA

From my publishers:

‘From renowned underwater archaeologist David Gibbins comes an exciting and rich narrative of human history told through the archaeological discoveries of twelve shipwrecks across time.

The Viking warship of King Cnut the Great. Henry VIII's the Mary Rose. Captain John Franklin's doomed HMS Terror. The SS Gairsoppa, destroyed by a Nazi U-boat in the Atlantic during World War II.

Since we first set sail on the open sea, ships and their wrecks have been an inevitable part of human history. Archaeologists have made spectacular discoveries excavating these sunken ships, their protective underwater cocoon keeping evidence of past civilizations preserved. Now, for the first time, world renowned maritime archeologist David Gibbins ties together the stories of some of the most significant shipwrecks in time to form a single overarching narrative of world history.

A History of the World in 12 Shipwrecks is not just the story of those ships, the people who sailed on them, and the cargo and treasure they carried, but also the story of the spread of people, religion, and ideas around the world; it is a story of colonialism, migration, and the indomitable human spirit that continues today. From the glittering Bronze Age, to the world of Caesar's Rome, through the era of the Vikings, to the exploration of the Arctic, Gibbins uses shipwrecks to tell all.

Drawing on decades of experience excavating shipwrecks around the world, Gibbins reveals the riches beneath the waves and shows us how the treasures found there can be a porthole to the past that tell a new story about the world and its underwater secrets.’

resources and additional material

These pages contain background material and images for each of the twelve chapters in the book.