Since the sea covers two‐thirds of the world's surface, it certainly deserves to have a major reference book devoted to it. This one covers inland waterways as well. Its 125 long articles, by 50 authors, are divided into three sections. The first, comprising half the book, provides an article on each major ocean, sea, lake or canal: the lesser features are covered by collective articles such as African Rivers or Asian Ports. While the title of this section defines it as historical, there is, as the nature of the subject requires, a good deal of geographical information too, and in a few cases (for instance, the article on the Arabian Sea) geography predominates over history. The second main section, about half the length of the first, is entitled Uses of the World's Oceans and Waterways. Some of its headings would be obvious: shipping, fishing, hydro‐electricity, tourism, but others less so: underwater archaeology, seaweed, or methane hydrates (a possible source of energy, although the article seems to have missed their potential in global warming). It first appeared that one very important use of the seas – for warfare – was missing, until it turned up, under the heading of International Security, in the third section, which is entitled Issues Pertaining to the World's Seas and Oceans of which a representative sample includes cartography and hydrography, exploration, law of the sea, pollution, trade and transportation, a list which demonstrates a certain conceptual overlap between the second and third sections. Scattered throughout are boxes with some extracts from important maritime legislation, either international or US, and a few biographical accounts, mostly of explorers or marine scientists. The text is updated to 2009. There is no statement of the intended readership, but one would suppose it to be US undergraduates (who are catered for by a degree of North American emphasis).
The supplementary material comprises a chronology, which although it begins at four billion years ago, devotes more than half its space to the twentieth century; a glossary of 150 specialised terms; and a substantial index, mostly geographical in scope, and repeated in each volume. There is no general bibliography, but each article is provided with a few references for further reading, the majority being books but a few websites. The illustrations are not very numerous and appear somewhat haphazardly chosen (for instance, the only personalities shown are Ferdinand Magellan and Jacques Cousteau). The maps of seas and oceans are little more than sketches.
In spite of its large size and wide coverage, the encyclopedia left this reviewer with the impression that a greater degree of editorial control would have improved it. There are some surprising omissions: for instance, there are no articles on the Aral Sea (which might have been a case study in environmental catastrophe) or Lake Baikal (the largest body of fresh water in the world), though there is one on Lake Tahoe, California. Nor are there articles on the great maritime powers of history (Athens or Venice for instance), nor on countries first settled by ancient maritime explorers (Iceland or New Zealand). There are inconsistencies in the coverage of comparable articles; for example, that on the Aegean Sea practically gives up after the fifteenth century, whereas that on the Atlantic Ocean does not begin until the nineteenth. There are some curious misprints (perhaps caused by an over‐reliance on spell‐checkers): my favourite was the article which several times rendered “cabotage” (coastal navigation) as “sabotage”. There are occasional avoidable errors of detail: readers are told, variously, that the great English seaside resort of Blackpool is an important centre for shipbuilding, that the Royal Navy destroyed the German Fleet at the Battle of Jutland, and that the Crimea is an island. This encyclopedia does contain a great deal of useful information on many important subjects, but stricter editing would have increased its value.
