USS Constitution, 44-gun frigate, 1797 (ShipCraft)

History

Jang, Kerry

Americas

Seaforth Publishing

Ship Craft Queen Elizabeth Class Battleships - Revised Edition

BROWN, Les

Europe

The 'ShipCraft' series provides in-depth information about building and modifying model kits of famous warship types. Lavishly illustrated, each book takes the modeller through a brief history of the subject class, highlighting differences between sisterships and changes in their appearance over their careers. This includes paint schemes and camouflage, featuring colour profiles and highly-detailed line drawings and scale plans. The modelling section reviews the strengths and weaknesses of available kits, lists commercial accessory sets for super-detailing of the ships, and provides hints on modifying and improving the basic kit. This is followed by an extensive photographic survey of selected high-quality models in a variety of scales, and the book concludes with a section on research references - books, monographs, large-scale plans and relevant websites.The two ships covered in this volume were the only capital ships designed and built between the wars - a special concession of the Washington Treatys ban on new battleships - and they were unlike anything before them, with the superstructure three-quarters aft and all main armament turrets forward of the bridge. During the war Nelson survived mine and torpedo damage, while Rodney played a major part in the destruction of the Bismarck, both surviving to be broken up post-war.LES BROWN is a leading light in the Small Warships Group of the IPMS and the editor of their newsletter. He is the author of a number of titles in the ShipCraft series, including two on British destroyers, and, with John Lambert, he produced two larger works, one on 'Flower' class corvettes and another on Allied torpedo boats. He also wrote the volume on Black Swan Class Sloops in Seaforth's 'Original Builders' Plans' series.ROBERT BROWN is a Canadian ship modeller, who has contributed a number of volumes in the ShipCraft series, the most recent being British Aircraft Carriers published in 2024. He is also the author of Battleship Warspite, the first in a new series based on original builder's plans.

ShipCraft 23: Rodney and Nelson - Revised Edition

Brown, Robert

From War to Peace tells the story of the adaptation from White Ensign to Red Ensign, and to flags of other nations, of the numerous classes of naval ships mainly built during the two world wars and surplus to requirements with the advent of peace. It also describes ships sourced from the United States Navy and elsewhere that were converted for commercial use.\nThe most successful classes to transfer to the merchant service were the Hunt-class minesweepers of the Great War, Landing Craft, Tank, the salvage tugs of World War Two, and the wooden-hulled Fairmile launches which became familiar at seaside resorts in the 1950s and ‘60s; and, of course, the MFV classes that helped the fishing industry in the postwar years. The story includes the successful commercial conversions of many of the Flower and Castle Class corvettes and River Class frigates, notably the 1954 conversion of HMCS Stormont to a luxury yacht for the Greek shipping magnate Onassis. It describes why HMS Charybdis became a passenger liner in the Great War, and how HMS Albatross nearly became a luxury liner after World War Two, but in fact was transformed into a very unpopular emigrant ship and ended her days as a floating casino based at Cape Town.\nThe author reveals the military antecedents of numerous commercial vessels that many would have thought were built especially for the service that they later maintained, and it illustrates just how many Royal Navy vessels ended up in private ownership. And the question is asked: if the military had not built so many ships that were eminently suitable for commercial adaptation, would the technical development of merchant shipping have progressed at a faster rate than it did? The answer is a definite ‘no’, and is illustrated in several ways. It was former naval vessels that promoted the early development of the Ro-Ro ferry; former naval ships introduced numerous design innovations, for example, the raised foredeck common for so many years on salvage tugs, and, above all, stripped of their military hardware, ex naval ships provided opportunities for modest investment where otherwise there would have been none.\nCopiously illustrated throughout, the book tells a fascinating story of invention and ingenious ship conversion, and of pragmatic adaptation in the financially stringent years after two world wars.

From War to Peace: The Conversion of Naval Vessels After Two World Wars

ROBINS, Nick

Military

On a map the Azores appear as nine tiny specks in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, but their location was to prove strategically vital in two world wars The Atlantic became a crucial battleground twice within the space of 25 years, as the US ‘arsenal of democracy’ sent firstly stores, arms and equipment, followed by many thousands of troops to fight in Europe. In both desperate and closely fought struggles at sea, Germany sought to stem the flow and thereby win the war, by cutting this vital lifeline, using a new weapon – the ocean-going submarine. In the First World War the Azores became a mid-Atlantic refuelling location, a base for US and Portuguese naval vessels and – in a hugely innovative contribution to the anti-submarine war – for the patrol seaplanes and flying boats of the US Marine Corps. Portugal was neutral during the Second World War but when Winston Churchill invoked a treaty dating from 1373, permission was given in 1943 for an RAF Coastal Command base to be very rapidly established at Lagens. From there convoys could be protected and U-boats could be harried and sunk, so closing the notorious mid-Atlantic gap. Later, it also became an important staging post for US aircraft, as it had been in the previous conflict. The significance of the Azores has been overlooked in most military histories, but this extensively researched and copiously illustrated book from historian Guy Warner provides a detailed but balanced appraisal. The author has had access to archives and photographic collections in the UK, USA, Portugal and the Azores, consulting with local historians to produce a book that sheds much new light on a hitherto under-appreciated facet of twentieth-century history.

Atlantic Linchpin: The Azores in Two World Wars

Guy Warner

The Harwich Force has made its name and will not be forgotten during the future annals of history’; so said Rear Admiral Sir Reginald Tyrwhitt on Armistice Day 1918. But that fame has not endured. Yet for the whole duration of the First World War, the Harwich Striking Force was the front line of the Royal Navy, a force of cruisers and destroyers defending the seas for the Allies.\nUnder a charismatic and aggressive leader, Reginald Yorke Tyrwhitt, U-boats, German cruisers, destroyers and light craft all met their ends at the hands of the Force, as did enemy seaplanes and Zeppelin airships. The Harwich ships were at sea almost daily throughout the war, haunting the German coast and the Friesian Islands, pioneering aerial attack from the sea, developing naval carrier aviation and combined air/sea operations, and hunting for enemy submarines and minelayers in the North Sea. The Harwich Force also took part in major naval battles alongside the Grand Fleet’s battlecruisers, and protected merchant ships operating in the dangerous waters around Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany and Britain.\nThe author also assesses the role played by the other Royal Navy formations at Harwich: submarines, auxiliary minesweeping and patrol vessels, the Felixstowe seaplane base and the town itself. And when the war was finally won, the Force gained further fame when the German U-boat fleet was surrendered there.\nLavishly illustrated, this book is an enthralling account of the men of the Harwich Force, of their grit and brave sacrifice and the key part that they played in the final Allied victory against Germany.

The Harwich Striking Force: The Royal Navy's Front Line in the North Sea 1914–1918

Dunn, Steve

Favourite of Fortune: Captain John Quilliam, Trafalgar Hero

Biographies & Memoirs

Bond, Andrew

Cowin, Frank

Lambert,Andrew

Leaders & Notable People

"Gorgeous color photos of the models abound, showing the exceptional work of master ship modelers who have customized several models to produce lifelike renderings of the ill-fated vessel." ― National Maritime Historical Society\nThe ‘ShipCraft’ series provides in-depth information about building and modifying model kits of famous warships. Previously, these have generally covered plastic and resin models of 20th century subjects but, like the previous volume on Nelson’s Victory, this is a radical departure – not only a period sailing ship but one for which kits are available in many different materials and scales. This requires some changes to the standard approach, but the main features of the series remain constant.\nBounty, a merchant vessel purchased to undertake a special mission to the South Pacific, will always be remembered for the drama of the mutiny against Captain Bligh and his epic open-boat voyage that followed. The events inspired many books, and at least three major movies, and make the ship one of the most popular of all ship modeling subjects. Despite the ship’s fame, and the vast range of kits it has inspired, there are question marks over many aspects of the vessel’s fitting and, especially, how it was painted. This volume tackles these questions, reconstructing convincing color schemes for the ship both as a merchant vessel and in naval service. The modeling section reviews the strengths and weaknesses of available kits, lists commercial accessory sets for super-detailing, and provides hints on modifying and improving the basic kit, including the complexities of rigging. This is followed by an extensive photographic gallery of selected high-quality models in a variety of scales, and coverage concludes with a section on research references – books, monographs, large-scale plans and relevant websites.\nFollowing the pattern of the series, this book provides an unparalleled level of visual information – paint schemes, models, line drawings and photographs – and is simply the best reference for anyone setting out to model this imposing three-decker.

Bounty: HM Armed Vessel, 1787 (ShipCraft)

World

Seaforth World Naval Review: 2024

Unknown, Author

British and Commonwealth Warship Camouflage of WWII: Volume I - Destroyers, Frigates, Sloops, Escorts, Minesweepers, Submarines, Coastal Forces and Auxiliaries

George Wright, Malcolm

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