The history of the sea is filled with tales of disaster, from the unavoidable -- sudden storms, hidden rocks and the like -- to the stupid mistakes that remind us why some people should never be allowed to stand on the deck of a ship.

David Blackmore's book, aptly titled Blunders & Disasters at Sea, is brimming with stories, from ancient times to modern, that will certainly give landlubbers pause before taking their chances in blue water.

Beginning in 1176 BCE with a bold ambush on the Nile, when the "Sea Peoples" were routed in a naval encounter with Egyptian forces, to a series of four collisions with the wrecked vessel Tricolor in the English Channel in December 2002, Blackmore has compiled a vast assortment of incidents, many of which cost countless lives and some of which could have been avoided. Between the two, he includes more than 100 separate incidents, each with one or more wrecked ships and great loss of life.

Although he oddly omits the Titanic incident -- perhaps that capital blunder is too well known to retell here -- it's hard to imagine he missed much else.

The stories are brief, ranging from under a page to four or five for more involved incidents -- the longest, about a Nazi maneuver through the Channel that left the British Navy floundering, is 10 pages. But each entry is packed with detail that will keep both experienced seamen and armchair sailors absorbed.

Wooden sailing ships, steamships, cruise ships and massive World War II battleships all have their place here, and many still rest at the bottom of the ocean because, ultimately, someone goofed. My only complaint? Too few pictures. There's a nice collection in the middle of the book, but the book screams out for more.

I read mostly nautical fiction, but nonfiction books such as Blunders & Disasters at Sea make the sea come truly alive. As novelist Wilbur Smith notes in a quote on the back cover, "There is material for a hundred or more novels in these pages." I'd probably enjoy reading those novels, too -- but in the meantime, I thoroughly enjoyed Blackmore's brief, more anecdotal versions. This book is highly recommended.