Early Ships & Seafaring: European Water Transport (also released with the alternate subhead, Water Transport within Europe) is a thorough academic study of boat- and shipbuilding through the lens of the maritime archeologist.

The author, Sean McGrail, is well versed on the subject, with more than 20 years of service in the Royal Navy providing the foundation for his nautical expertise, followed by postgraduate work in the field culminating in a doctorate from Oxford University. He was chief archeologist at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich for more than a decade, then spent several years as a professor of maritime archeology at Oxford.

So, he knows his subject thoroughly.

But unless you have similar academic goals, this might not be the book for you.

The book obviously wasn't written for a casual perusal; it reads like a long research paper requiring data, not craft, in its construction. Think of it as an information dump: If you are interested in the topic, you will certainly find some of McGrail's revelations to be fascinating, but unless you're at his level of expertise, the book's 169 pages (plus a reading list, glossary and index) will be a difficult slog.

The book is thoroughly illustrated with photos, maps and diagrams, and is divided into sections on the Atlantic coastal regions and the Mediterranean. And there is a lot of text packed into a relatively short book.

But, for all that it's set on Europe's waterways, the subject is dry. Take, for instance, this passage on the hull shape and size in early naval architecture:

The general hull shape has to match the function of the vessel and to minimise resistance to motion. The vessel's lines should allow the water displaced by the bow and entry of the vessel to move downwards and astern, and then to rise diagonally along the quarter (buttock lines) back to the surface, leaving the vessel with minimum turbulence at the stern. The requirement for speed and manoeuvrability should be considered when determining the relationship between length (L) and breadth (B). Capacity and stability should similarly be considered in conjunction with the relationship between (B) and depth (D).

Wait, is that physics?

OK, so it's certainly important information to consider, but I imagined the book would examine seafaring cultures -- how they adapted to the needs of ocean travel and the ways in which shipbuilding evolved. Instead, the book is mostly a dusty recitation of measurements and construction terminology that could as easily have been about bridges or cottage roofs.

When McGrail describes differences in the design of Viking ships, again, he goes for the dullest presentation possible.

The tenth century Klastad ship was generally similar in structure and in shape to the Gokstad ship but she had a meginhufr similar to that of Iseberg which gave her a marked discontinuity in transverse section. The lower frames of the Tune and Gokstad ships were lashed to cleats in their planking and their upper frames were treenailed. Klastad frames were all treenailed. The Klastad ship was carrying whetstone blanks on a dunnage of hazel sticks and it has been claimed that she was a specialized cargo carrier. On the other hand, her general proportions are mid-way between the Oseberg and Gokstad: this suggests that she was, like her predecessors, a 'general purpose' ship.

McGrail has a casual approach to commas, often omitting them when needed and using them where they're not. More importantly, he writes for an audience that must be fairly well educated on the topic already, as he offhandedly mentions scholars and studies that he must assume readers will be familiar with.

You'll read a lot about sewn planks, lashings and mortise and tenon construction. You won't read much about how the ships and boats were used, or how they were discovered, unearthed, preserved and interpreted. In short -- this book provides a lot of detailed information for anyone who's really interested in the narrow focus of McGrail's area of expertise, but there's not much here for someone who just wants to learn about ... well, early ships and seafaring in Europe.

The author followed up the publication of this book with its 2015 sequel, Early Ships & Seafaring: Water Transport Beyond Europe, which looks at the subject in Egypt, Arabia, India, Southeast Asia, China, Australia, Oceania and the Americas. I did not read the companion volume, but assume it's of a similar nature.