Ships vanished without trace. Others burned, broke apart or sank within minutes.

Across two world wars, weather, structural weakness, human judgement, chance and enemy action combined in ways that could determine the fate of an entire ship and everyone aboard.

In For Those in Peril, Tony Matthews brings together seven remarkable episodes of loss, survival and consequence.

There is USS Cyclops, which disappeared in 1918 with more than 300 people aboard and has never been found; the troopship Dorchester, where four military chaplains gave away their own lifejackets as the vessel sank into freezing waters; and USS Franklin, an aircraft carrier so badly damaged that few believed she could remain afloat.

Matthews also examines the devastating consequences of submarine warfare, including attacks on ships carrying soldiers, prisoners, civilians and hundreds of schoolchildren.

These are stories of ships lost and ships saved, of catastrophic decisions and remarkable acts of courage – and of what happened when war met the unforgiving uncertainty of the sea.

Tony Matthews returns to the hidden corners of wartime history with seven extraordinary stories of catastrophe and courage at sea.