The Ship Model Forum

Another superb book by Norman Friedman. It has eight chapters plus a lengthy introduction and an appendix on Vicker's cruisers. The chapters are: 1.Steam Sail and Wood, 2. Iron Hulls, 3. The First Armoured Cruisers, 4. Fast Steel Cruisers, 5. Torpedo Cruisers, 6. Big Cruisers, 7. Fast Wing of the Fleet, and 8. Fisher's Revolution. The book defines cruisers as those ships designed to protect trade and drive the trade of enemy nations from the seas. Mr. Friedman starts with the early steam and sail powered ships of the 1830's and continues through to the big armoured cruisers of pre-war design that so often met with disaster when pitted against those ships designed after the Dreadnought revolution. He explains the Admiralty criteria that drove howand why the ships were designed and all the trade-offs needed to get a practicable design. As an engineer I understand all the trade-offs that are necessary to design any thing as complex as a ship and I find that Friedman explains those trade offs well. The book has over 350 pages including an index, and data pages listing the dimensions etc of the various classes and then data pages listing the fates of the individual ships. It is loaded with many pictures plus plans and profiles of selected ships. Some of the pictures are a little muddy but I hope that is due to the quality of the originals.