Spans five thousand years of the ocean's history to tell the stories of the courageous individuals who sailed the seas for trade, to conquer new lands, and to explore the unknown, from the early Polynesians to the first circumnavigations by the Portuguese and the British.

The first ocean sailors to 1450 -- The age of exploration, 1450-1600 -- The age of empire, 1600-1815 -- Steam and emigration, 1815-1914 -- The wars on the oceans, 1914-1945 -- The global ocean, 1945-present.