The society's logo is derived from the image of a merchant sailing ship on a Bichrome Ware Cypro-Archaic pottery jug 750-600BC, thought to be from the Karpas Peninsula in North Cyprus.

This was formed in 1964 initially under the name the Committee for Nautical Archaeology:"so as to ensure that the many discoveries being made by divers should not go by default through lack of contact with the appropriate learned bodies and to act as a channel of communication with the many interests that were growing up in this new field of research and exploration.

"[7] The inaugural meeting of the CNA was held in Joan du Plat Taylor's office at the Institute of Nautical Archaeology, at the University of London.

[4] The reconstituted organisation continued to have responsibility for producing the IJNA and a clause safeguarding the academic standards of the journal was added to the articles.

With the dual advantages of a participatory membership and its status as a registered charity, in 1986 the newly reconstituted Nautical Archaeology Society ran the first events in what later became its four-part internationally accredited training syllabus.

In 2015, the NAS Education Programme underwent a major revision to adapt to the increasing use of online learning and to make the qualification system more flexible.

IJNA aims to cover all aspects of nautical archaeological research including the seas, ships, cargos, harbours and sailors of the past.

The grant was originally funded personally by Joan du Plat Taylor, the founder editor of IJNA and the first president of the Nautical Archaeology Society.

As well as shipwrecks, adopted sites can include harbour works and buildings with nautical connections, coastal habitations, hulks and other sea wrack of archaeological interest.

It is awarded for the best published work covering maritime, nautical or underwater archaeology which best reflects the pioneering ideas and scholarly standards of Keith Muckelroy.

In 2004 the Nautical Archaeological Society took custody of the remains of an Elizabethan wreck discovered in the Princes Channel of the Thames Estuary during dredging operations by the Port of London Authority.

The remains were investigated by Wessex Archaeology[35] and dendrochronology by Nigel Nayling of the University of Wales gave a construction date of soon after 1754, probably in East Anglia.

The remains were transferred to Horsea Island, an estuarine lake near Portsmouth, where the brackish water should enable the timbers to stabilise while they are accessible to students for study and training purposes.

Wreckmap Britain 2006[43] was launched at the London International Dive Show (LIDS) on 1 April 2006 and has distributed 100,000 recording forms to recreational divers.

[44] WreckMap Britain is conducted in partnership with the Marine Conservation Society (SeaSearch) and sponsored by Crown Estate, the BSAC Jubilee Trust and PADI through the Project AWARE Foundation.

[46][47] In 2006 a group of sea cadets were given the opportunity to become maritime archaeologists, learning to scuba dive, to research archives and to design web sites.

[48] The North East England Maritime Archaeology Research Archive (NEEMARA) was established in 2006 thanks to grant funding from English Heritage and from local councils.

Following a pilot exercise by the South West Maritime History Society and Dorset County Council, a web site enables anyone to upload pghotographs and information about anchors.