“The boat,” wrote the philosopher Michel Foucault, “is the greatest reserve of the imagination… In civilisations without boats, dreams dry up, espionage takes the place of adventure, and the police take the place of pirates.” The whole sweep of Western culture, from its genesis in the oral cultures of the Aegean and Near East, to its modern manifestations – including rock music – is populated by boats, both real and imaginary, and voyages.