Book excerpt: This book offers a comprehensive and timely overview of internal combustion engines for use in marine environments. It reviews the development of modern four-stroke marine engines, gas and gas–diesel engines and low-speed two-stroke crosshead engines, describing their application areas and providing readers with a useful snapshot of their technical features, e.g. their dimensions, weights, cylinder arrangements, cylinder capabilities, rotation speeds, and exhaust gas temperatures. For each marine engine, information is provided on the manufacturer, historical background, development and technical characteristics of the manufacturer’s most popular models, and detailed drawings of the engine, depicting its main design features. This book offers a unique, self-contained reference guide for engineers and professionals involved in shipbuilding. At the same time, it is intended to support students at maritime academies and university students in naval architecture/marine engineering with their design projects at both master and graduate levels, thus filling an important gap in the literature.