Naval Guns : 500 Years of Ship and Coastal Artillery

This lavishly illustrated history of naval and coastal artillery since the mid-fifteenth century is the first to present a lucid overview of the complex subject in a single-volume. Drawing from examples found at museums, memorial sites, monuments, private collections, and museum ships, the author describes some 275 naval guns. He begins with the earliest bronze-cast cannon and continues through the development of the explosive shell in the nineteenth century to today's fully automatic weapons, which load, train, lay, and fire themselves with deadly accuracy. Such guns as the basilisk, bombard, culverin, drake, minion, saker, passavolante, and serpentine are covered, as well as the guns of Russian and Soviet ships. This wealth of information is sure to become an indispensable reference and a unique guide to extant weapons throughout the world. 216 pages. 384 photographs. 75 line drawings. Hardcover. 10 x 12 inches.