In 1984 a symposium on the Archaeology and Ethnography of Sewn Plank Boats was held at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich - the first conference ever to be convened on this subject. It attracted 64 participants from 14 countries, not only archaeologists and ethnographers but also historians, geographers and naval architects. With one exception, the 22 papers published here discuss aspects of sewn plank boats dating from the mid-3rd millennium BC to the present.