The Ship Model Forum

Ah yes of course Henry Trevor Lenton & Jim Colledge, I use it often though I have the combined H/B version of those paperbacks, I'll add it now.

[quote="Laurence Batchelor"]Did you notice a few more RN DD books I added onto to my reference list on here?

Can you think of anymore?[/quote]

Just one (unless I missed it in your list):

[img]http://www.warshipmodels.com/~users/RNfanDan/LentonColledge.jpg[/img]

Mines got a protective cover on, most of my better books have, a local book store in town does it for me.

Did you notice a few more RN DD books I added onto to my reference list on here?

Can you think of anymore?

Only the D/J...the book within is in far better shape, belying its age. Then again, that's what D/Js are for--sacrifice the cosmetics, to save the beauty underneath!

Yeah, the one I had was an original. Harder to find, too.

Yours is a 1st edition I think Dan :thumbs_up_1:

Also its took a bit more of a beating :heh:

[quote="Laurence Batchelor"]
For an overview type of book there's these also:-

[img]http://www.widdo.net/laurence/c19.jpg[/img][/quote]

I just sold my copy of this book, but its D/J varied considerably from that of yours, Laurence:

[img]http://www.warshipmodels.com/~users/RNfanDan/ManningFront.jpg[/img]

Dan

If you are a model maker you will find the traced "as fitted" plans just up your street. The relatively small number of photos are of generally high quality. I gave my copy away years ago. Suggest that you ask someone on this board to list the "as fitted" plan sets and only those, no others.
Then make a choice.


quote="bengtsson"]Thanks fellows! I am glad to hear about the book by March, I was tempted to go in for that one, but hearing the expert comments on it, I'll not take the bait! :big_grin: I will take wr's advice and wait for someone to do the definitve book on RN Destroyers. Seems a subject waiting for an author :eyebrows: . I'de have come on board sooner, but the influensa has got me and I dragged myself out of my death bed to see the replies :wave_1: I admit I have taken a great interest in how the RN went about getting their destroyers built in the early years and WWI. Was it not just a set of requirements put out for bid, and the bidding shipbuilders did all the real design work. Thus many Destroyers of the same general class had alot of differences depending on the ship builder's decisions as how best to meet Admiralty requirements? When or was this done away with by the time of the V-Ws? They seem quite standard types.
Anyone know where I could get more information on the Botha class leaders built for Chile and taken over for the war? The famous Broke being one of my favorite RN WWI destroyers?

Bob B.[/quote]

Thanks fellows! I am glad to hear about the book by March, I was tempted to go in for that one, but hearing the expert comments on it, I'll not take the bait! :big_grin: I will take wr's advice and wait for someone to do the definitve book on RN Destroyers. Seems a subject waiting for an author :eyebrows: . I'de have come on board sooner, but the influensa has got me and I dragged myself out of my death bed to see the replies :wave_1: I admit I have taken a great interest in how the RN went about getting their destroyers built in the early years and WWI. Was it not just a set of requirements put out for bid, and the bidding shipbuilders did all the real design work. Thus many Destroyers of the same general class had alot of differences depending on the ship builder's decisions as how best to meet Admiralty requirements? When or was this done away with by the time of the V-Ws? They seem quite standard types.
Anyone know where I could get more information on the Botha class leaders built for Chile and taken over for the war? The famous Broke being one of my favorite RN WWI destroyers?

Bob B.

I like to at least know all RN DD books, its not one I can think of.

No, this was a book about warships.
Give up, the thing was lousy anyway.

[quote="Laurence Batchelor"]This was published 1970? There can only be so many with a foreword from him :big_grin:

[img]http://www.widdo.net/laurence/244347138.jpg[/img][/quote]

This was published 1970? There can only be so many with a foreword from him :big_grin:

[img]http://www.widdo.net/laurence/244347138.jpg[/img]

This one 1979

[img]http://www.widdo.net/laurence/761660670.jpg[/img]

The book was published and I gave my copy away years ago.


[quote="Laurence Batchelor"]Nothing else springs to mind, though there are some books on Mountbatten personally :scratch:

Was it published in the end?[/quote]

Nothing else springs to mind, though there are some books on Mountbatten personally :scratch:

Was it published in the end?

No


[quote="Laurence Batchelor"]any idea the title or author wr?

I may have it, was it this one?:-

[img]http://www.widdo.net/laurence/c50.jpg[/img][/quote]

any idea the title or author wr?

I may have it, was it this one?:-

[img]http://www.widdo.net/laurence/c50.jpg[/img]

In the seventies I was asked to do some drawings for a book, the name of which I have forgotten. The forward was written by Mountbatten who wanted a profile of the Kelly shown. I refused to do this for some reason, which caused the publisher to almost beg me to reconsider otherwise Mountbatten was NOT going to co-operate. So I relented.

[quote="Laurence Batchelor"][quote="wr"]The dust cover shows Mountbatten's influence with the book.[/quote]

Yes your right, ego perhaps forcing only 1 destroyer type to be shown from the 50 or so classes the book covers!

Its such a shame you & John stopped at cruisers a DD book in your style would have been popular.[/quote]

[quote="wr"]The dust cover shows Mountbatten's influence with the book.[/quote]

Yes your right, ego perhaps forcing only 1 destroyer type to be shown from the 50 or so classes the book covers!

Its such a shame you & John stopped at cruisers a DD book in your style would have been popular.

The dust cover shows Mountbatten's influence with the book.

Ah good day gents, just got home and I see the usual book fellows have already posted :wave_1:

Right then early destroyers....

I would recommend David Lyon's excellent book which John Roberts helped with also, its fairly recent and is still very well priced:-

[b][url]http://www.amazon.co.uk/First-Destroyers-ShipShape-David-Lyon/dp/1840673648/sr=8-3/qid=1169912608/ref=sr_1_3/203-2419741-3979107?ie=UTF8&s=books[/url][/b]

Furthermore a good book I have on these early destroyers, and what it was like to serve on one, is the out-of-print Peter C. Smith one, Hard Lying : the birth of the destroyer 1893-1913:-

[b][url]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hard-lying-birth-destroyer-1893-1913/dp/087021828X/sr=1-3/qid=1169912713/ref=sr_1_3/203-2419741-3979107?ie=UTF8&s=books[/url][/b]


If you desire a good photo book, there's none better the Ray A Burt's Warships Illustrated 7 British Destroyers In WW1 which is on my RN Destroyer book reference list here:-

[img]http://www.widdo.net/laurence/c36.jpg[/img]


As mentioned above the Edgar J March book is the single best book ever published, but its old (1963) and expensive. It has many fold out detailed plans traced off the Admiralty 'As fitteds' though it has much problems such as coverage e.g. early destroyers there's a wealth of info on, whereas there's much less on the late WW2 destroyers for example (mainly accounted for too much source material was still classified back in the early 1960s).


The other weakness stems from the fact March mainly wrote about small sailing boats and for some silly reason Selley, the publishers, got him to do one on British Destroyers, probably because Dr Oscar Parkes British Battleships book, which came out a few years earlier, was a good success, but they would have been better if they chose someone more atune to destroyers or the Royal Navy in general. Still its the best book ever published, and badly in need of reprinting or revision. I'd hoped Friedman's recent work would have sorted this gap out, oh well we shall wait and see when his Volume 1 book comes out in the near future.

[img]http://www.widdo.net/laurence/c44.JPG[/img]

For an overview type of book there's these also:-

[img]http://www.widdo.net/laurence/c19.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.widdo.net/laurence/c20.jpg[/img]

I never knew or met March, but I know people who did. I ever heard anything bad about him as a person, but as the author of the destroyer book I would give his work only three or four out of ten.
His area of interest was NOT in warships but in coastal sailing ships of the UK. It is evident that he unfortunately did not understand the subject of destroyers or to write well in terms of putting the material together.
He was a personal friend of Mountbatten and this friendship allowed him access to material that was still very much closed to everbody else.
At the time of his death in the late sixties he had written part of the volume on cruisers, which I saw. What had been completed was totally unpublishable.
British destroyers from conception up to World War Two still awaits it's author.


[quote="RickF"]Jim,

Re Edgar March, do you think the pros of his book outweigh the cons.

I have to confess that I am only interested in the early chapters, but trying to build a model from one of his "tracings" (Torpedo Boat No 80) has shown up quite a lot of sloppy draughtsmanship.

I have heard him described as "a law unto himself", with very firm opinions and unwilling to consider the views of others.

What do you think?

Rick[/quote]