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World warships in review, 1860-1906 By John Leather

Incomplete! Only first 128 pages!

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The half-century spanned by the ships in this book saw the beginning of an ever quickening tempo in the design, construction, propulsion, armament and protection of fighting ships, which continues today in this age of gas turbines and rocket missiles. Now navies are accustomed to radical change, but it was only in 1860 that the ironclad, steam-propelled seagoing warship became reality, first emerging in France after centuries of wooden-hulled sailing predecessors. Although armoured, these new ships retained broadside-mounted guns firing through ports, and most were fully rigged, whether they could sail or not - a safeguard considered necessary when ocean-going marine engines were still regarded as unre­liable, coal consumption was high and bunkering facilities far apart or non-existent in distant seas.

During the following thirty years wild experiments were made in warship design; instead of the size, armament and rig of warships being subject to gradual development, many were outclassed almost before the keel was laid. Improvements in guns, armour, size, engines and speed went forward so quickly, with each development interacting on the rest of the design, and all navies equally ignorant of the best design for a warship with particular duties, that major fleets became a curious collection of widely differing types. Eventually definite types emerged, but the rapid development continued.

Fascinating photographs of this period of greatest naval change were caught by the camera of Beken ofCowcs, the internationally renowned family of marine photographers, and from their treasury of warship negatives I have selected one hundred and thirty-three of the best, illus­trating ships of typical or special interest. Each ship portrait is hitherto unpublished and most have great clarity of detail. Ships of contempor­ary types in different navies are contrasted: battleships, armoured cruis­ers, protected cruisers, unarmoured ships, shallow-draught coast defence ships, sloops, torpedo boats, destroyers, torpedo gunboats, training ships and other craft. In a work of this size the general text serves only as an outline of a very complex period but the characteristics and careers of the selected ships are examined in detail.

My thanks are due to Tony Sutherland, a fellow ship surveyor, and to John Freestone, another colleague at Lloyd's Register of Shipping, who both helped with some difficult research, and to Kenneth Beken and his staff for willing help when selecting the photographs.

John Leather Cowes, 1975

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