The Viking warship of King Cnut the Great. Henry VIII's the Mary Rose. Captain John Franklin's doomed HMS Terror. The German battleship The Bismarck destroyed by Allied forces.

This is the story of some of the greatest underwater discoveries of all time, from the Bronze Age world of Troy and Caesar's Rome, through Viking warriors and the court of Henry VIII, to the exploration of the Arctic and World War Two. A rich and exciting narrative, this is not just the story of those ships and the people who sailed on them, the cargo and treasure they carried and their tragic fate. This is also the story of the spread of people, religion and ideas around the world, a story of colonialism and migration which continues today.

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