The John Lyman Book Awards are given annually by the North American Society for Oceanic History to recognise excellence in published books making a major contribution to the study and understanding of maritime and naval history. They are named after Professor John Lyman (1915–1977) of the University of North Carolina.
History The Lyman Book Awards were inaugurated in 1995 and have honored more than 240 books from more than 80 publishers.
As of 2023, the Committee makes awards in the following eight categories:
Maritime and Nautical Archaeology Maritime and Naval Biography and Autobiography Maritime and Naval Reference Works and Published Primary Sources Maritime and Naval Science and Technology North American Maritime History North American Naval History World Maritime History World Naval History
The categories of North American Maritime and North American Naval History were formerly divided among Canadian naval and maritime history, U.S. naval history, and U.S. maritime history. World Maritime History and World Naval History were formerly one category.
+Maritime and Nautical ArchaeologyYearAuthorBookPublisher2023Dolores Elkin and Christophe Delaere, eds.Underwater and Coastal Archaeology in Latin AmericaUniversity of Florida Press2023 Hon. mentionWarren Curtis RiessStudying the Princess Carolina: Anatomy of the Ship That Held Up Wall StreetTexas A&M University Press2024Jane WebsterMaterializing the Middle Passage: A Historical Archaeology of British Slave Shipping, 1680–1807Oxford University Press2025Jennifer E. Jones, Della A. Scott-Ireton, and Jason T. Raupp, eds.Citizen Science in Maritime Archaeology: Terminology, Theory, and InfrastructureUniversity Press of Florida2025 Hon. mentionJennifer E. Jones, Calvin H. Mires, and Daniel Zwick, eds. Intertidal Shipwrecks: Management of a Historic Resource in an Unmanageable Environment. University Press of Florida +
Maritime and Naval Biography and Autobiography Year Author Book Publisher 1996 Robert Schneller A Quest for Glory: A Biography of Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren Naval Institute Press 1997 Catherine Petroski A Bride's Passage: Susan Hathorn's Year Under Sail Northeastern University Press 1998 W. Gillies Ross This Distant and Unsurveyed Country: A Woman's Winter at Baffin Island, 1857-58 McGill-Queen's University Press 1999 Craig Symonds Confederate Admiral: The Life and Wars of Franklin Buchanan Naval Institute Press 2000 Spencer Tucker Andrew Foote: Civil War Admiral on Western Waters Naval Institute Press 2001 John H. Schroeder Matthew Calbraith Perry: Antebellum Sailor and Diplomat Naval Institute Press 2003 Thomas Wildenberg All the Factors of Victory: Admiral Joseph Mason Reeves and the Origins of Carrier Airpower Brassey's 2004 Kathleen Broome Williams Grace Hopper: Admiral of the Cyber Sea Naval Institute Press 2005 Clark G. Reynolds On the Warpath in the Pacific: Admiral Jocko Clark and the Fast Carriers Naval Institute Press 2006 Mary Malloy Devil on the Deep Blue Sea: The Notorious Career of Captain Samuel Hill of Boston Bullbrier Press 2006 David Curtis Skaggs Oliver Hazard Perry: Honor, Courage, and Patriotism in the Early U.S. Navy Naval Institute Press 2006 Hon. mention John H. Schroeder Commodore John Rodgers: Paragon of the Early American Navy University Press of Florida 2007 Stephen Fox Wolf of the Deep: Raphael Semmes and the Notorious Confederate Raider CSS Alabama Alfred A. Knopf 2008 David Hackett Fischer Champlain's Dream: The Visionary Adventurer Who Made a New World in Canada Simon and Schuster 2011 Elliot Carlson Joe Rochefort's War: The Odyssey of the Codebreaker Who Outwitted Yamamoto at Midway Naval Institute Press 2012 Hon. mention Larry Berman Zumwalt: The Life and Times of Admiral Elmo Russell “Bud” Zumwalt, Jr. Harper 2013 Hon. mention Geoffrey L. Rossano, ed. Hero of the Angry Sky: The World War I Diary and Letters of David S. Ingalls, America’s First Naval Ace Ohio University Press 2014 Lloyd J. Matthews General Henry Lockwood of Delaware: Shipmate of Melville, Co-builder of the Naval Academy, Civil War Commander University of Delaware Press 2015 Dennis L. Noble The Sailor’s Homer: The Life and Times of Richard McKenna, Author of The Sand Pebbles Naval Institute Press 2016 Tamara Plakins Thornton Nathaniel Bowditch and the Power of Numbers: How a Nineteenth-Century Man of Business, Science, and the Sea Changed American Life University of North Carolina Press 2017 Sheila Johnson Kindred Jane Austen's Transatlantic Sister: The Life and Letters of Fanny Palmer Austen McGill-Queen's University Press 2017 Hon. mention Stan Grayson A Man for All Oceans: Captain Joshua Slocum and the First Solo Voyage Around the World Tilbury House Publishers/New Bedford Whaling Museum 2019 Winner Anthony J. Connors Went to the Devil: A Yankee Whaler in the Slave Trade University of Massachusetts Press 2019 Hon. mention Phillips Payson O’Brien The Second Most Powerful Man in the World: The Life of Admiral William D. Leahy, Roosevelt's Chief of Staff Dutton 2020 Brett Goodin From Captives to Consuls: Three Sailors in Barbary and Their Self-Making Across the Early American Republic, 1770–1840 Johns Hopkins University Press 2021 Winner Paul Stillwell Battleship Commander: The Life of Vice Admiral Willis A. Lee, Jr. Naval Institute Press 2021 Hon. mention John B. Hattendorf & Pelham Boyer, eds. To the Java Sea: Selections from the Diary, Reports, and Letters of Henry E. Eccles, 1940–1942 Naval War College Press 2022 Hon. mention Ranulph Fiennes Shackleton: The Biography Pegasus 2022 Hon. mention Marc Wortman Admiral Hyman Rickover: Engineer of Power Yale University Press 2023 Winner Robert W. Cherny Harry Bridges: Labor Radical, Labor Legend University of Illinois Press 2023 Hon. mention Margaret Willson Woman, Captain, Rebel: The Extraordinary True Story of a Daring Icelandic Sea Captain Sourcebooks2024 WinnerGelina HarlaftisOnassis Business History, 1924—1975Brill2024 Hon. mentionAndrew LipmanSquanto: A Native OdysseyYale University Press2025Craig L. SymondsAnnapolis Goes to War: The Naval Academy Class of 1940 and Its Trial by Fire in World War IIOxford University Press
+ Maritime and Naval Reference Works and Published Primary Sources Year Author Book Publisher 1995 Craig L. Symonds The Naval Institute's Historical Atlas of U.S. Navy Naval Institute Press 1996 Michael J. Crawford, ed. The Naval Documents of the American Revolution, vol. 10 Naval Historical Center 1997 Briton C. Busch & Barry M. Gough, eds. Fur Traders from New England: The Boston Men in the North Pacific, 1787–1800 Arthur H. Clark 1998 Robert Randolph Carter, Harold B. Gill, Jr. & Joanne Young Searching for the Franklin Expedition: The Arctic Journal of Robert Randolph Carter Naval Institute Press 1999 Robert J. Cressman The Official Chronology of the U.S. Navy in World War II Naval Institute Press 2000 David Freeman Canadian Warship Names Vanwell 2001 No award 2002 Michael J. Crawford, ed. The Naval War of 1812: A Documentary History, vol. 3 Naval Historical Center 2003 C. Herbert Gilliland Voyage to a Thousand Cares: Master's Mate Lawrence with the African Squadron, 1844–1846 Naval Institute Press 2004 W.H. Bunting Sea Struck Martha's Vineyard Historical Society 2005 No award 2006 Winner Ralph Sessions The Shipcarvers' Art: Figureheads and Cigar-Store Indians in Nineteenth-Century America Princeton University Press 2006 Hon. mention C. Danial Elliott, with Everett C. Wilkie, Jr. & Richard Ring Maritime History: A Hand-list of the Collection in the John Carter Brown Library (1474 to ca. 1860), revd. ed. John Carter Brown Library 2007 Winner John B. Hattendorf, Editor in Chief The Oxford Encyclopedia of Maritime History, 4 vols. Oxford University Press 2007 Hon. mention Deidre Simmons Keepers of the Record: The History of the Hudson's Bay Company Archives McGill-Queen's University Press 2008 Winner George J. Billy & Christine M. Billy Merchant Mariners at War: An Oral History of World War II University Press of Florida 2008 Hon. mention Robert Eric Barde Immigration at the Golden Gate: Passenger Ships, Exclusion, and Angel Island Praeger 2009 Yonah Alexander Terror on the High Seas: From Piracy to Strategic Challenge Praeger Security International 2010 No award 2011 Gordon Miller Voyages: To the New World and Beyond University of Washington Press 2012 Winner Jonathan C. Kinghorn The Atlantic Transport Line, 1881–1931: A History With Details on All Ships McFarland 2012 Hon. mention John D. Broadwater USS Monitor: A Historic Ship Completes its Final Voyage Texas A&M University Press 2013 Hon. mention John A. Wolter, David A. Ranzan, & John J. McDonough, eds. With Commodore Perry to Japan: The Journal of William Speiden, Jr., 1852–1855 Naval Institute Press 2014 Nancy Shoemaker, ed. Living With Whales: Documents and Oral Histories of Native New England Whaling History University of Massachusetts Press 2015 Mark L. Evans & Roy A. Grossnick United States Naval Aviation 1910–2010 Naval History & Heritage Command 2016 Winner Rebecca Huycke Ellison Daniel O. Killman’s Forty Years Master: A Life in Sail & Steam McFarland 2016 Hon. mention Jun Kimura Archaeology of East Asian Shipbuilding University Press of Florida 2017 Hon. mention Alicia Caporaso, ed. Formation Processes of Maritime Archaeological Landscapes Society for Historical Archaeology/Springer 2018 Hon. mention Anna Gibson Holloway & Jonathan W. White "Our Little Monitor": The Greatest Invention of the Civil War Kent State University Press 2019 Ken W. Sayers U.S. Navy Auxiliary Vessels: A History and Directory from World War I to Today McFarland 2020 No award 2021 Winner William N. Still & Richard A. Stephenson Shipbuilding in North Carolina, 1688–1918 North Carolina Office of Archives & History 2021 Hon. mention Nathan Lipfert Two Centuries of Maine Shipbuilding: A Visual History Down East Books 2022 Winner Robert G. Allan, with Peter A. Robson Workboats for the World: The Robert Allan Story Harbour 2022 Hon. mention Russell A. Potter, Regina Koellner, Peter Carney, & Mary Williamson, eds. "May We Be Spared to Meet on Earth": Letters of the Lost Franklin Arctic Expedition McGill-Queen’s University Press 2023 Co-Winners Ryan Tucker Jones & Matt K. Matsuda, eds. The Cambridge History of the Pacific Ocean, vol. 1, The Pacific Ocean to 1800 Cambridge University Press 2023 Co-Winners Anne Perez Hattori & Jane Samson, eds. The Cambridge History of the Pacific Ocean, vol. 2, The Pacific Ocean since 1800 Cambridge University Press 2023 Co-Winners Christine F. Hughes & Charles E. Brodine, Jr., eds. The Naval War of 1812: A Documentary History, vol. 4, 1814–1815 (Atlantic, Gulf Coast) Naval History & Heritage Command2024 WinnerKatelynn A. Hatton and Alex Christopher Meekins, eds.North Carolina Troops, 1861–1865: A Roster, vol. 22: Confederate States Navy, Confederate States Marine Corps, and Charlotte Naval YardNorth Carolina Office of Archives and History2024 Hon. mentionRobert F. Weir, ed. by Andrew W. GermanThe Watch’s Wild Cry: A Voyage Aboard the Whaling Vessel Clara BellLyons Press2025Richard H. Gimblett and Karl GagnonGuardians of the North: Canadian Warships and Maritime Aircraft, 1910–2025Dundurn Press2025 Hon. mentionHubert SagnièresFor Glory, Not Gold: Expeditions through Arctic Lands 1818–1876Flammarion