Widely praised and accepted, this revised and updated second edition includes new evidence lending weight to Haywood's argument that early Germanic shipbuilding and seafaring skills were far more advanced that previously thought. The study begins in 12BC with an unsuccessful attack by a fleet of the Bructeri on a Roman fleet and ends with the collapse of the Carolingian coastal defence system. Haywood attepmts to reconstruct the historical context from literary and a wide range of archaeological evidence, as well as analysing strategy and tactics of naval activities. Useful glossary of technical terms.