Many of the best pages in the history of Spain –and some of those that have contributed most to the progress of humankind– have been written on the deck of Spanish ships. Nonetheless, an illustrated history of the Navy, complete and primarily intended for the non-specialist reader, has not been written yet.

A History of Spanish Navy, an Institute of Naval History and Culture collective work, comes to fill this gap. It is an initiatory book, written for both sailors and the general public. A book that travels with a fast pace eight centuries of service to Spain, by means of short, rigorous texts and attractive illustrations, mostly taken from the rich historical and artistic heritage of the Spanish Navy itself. A book that attests to the role of the sea in the genesis of Spanish nation, still little known by many Spaniards. A work, in short, that does justice to the sailors, their ships and their exploits, and testifies to some of the values that are so necessary today as in other times for the best service to Spain.