Overview
The period from 1860 to 1905 was one of remarkable technical development in ship design. In this book, David Brown brings his knowledge and experience as a warship designer to the story of the transformation of capital ships from the fully-rigged broadside ironclads of the mid-nineteenth century to the turbine-powered Dreadnought battleships and battlecruisers of World War I. He shows the effects of over half a century of revolution in engine technology, armament and armor protection, and how these factors were combined by the ship designers to produce the best possible fighting ships, a process with which the author himself is intimately familiar.The book concentrates on the battleships, which were the most advanced ships of their day. It also covers the smaller classes of ships, such as the armored cruisers, which gave rise to the controversial battlecruisers, and the early torpedo boat destroyers, which pioneered turbine propulsion in warships.
The author details the influence of the American Civil War on turret ship design and commerce-raiding, the bombardment of Alexandria in 1882, and the combat experience of all sides in the Spanish-American War of 1898 and the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. He offers details of the exhaustive trials undertaken by the Royal Navy of these untried technologies, and the influence of ship design on the infamous disaster of the Victoria and the Camperdown that indicate the Royal Navy, far from being reactionary in this period, was committed to the introduction of new technology.
Superbly illustrated with rare contemporary photographs and drawings of the most important ships, this hook will be a vital addition to the collections of all navalhistorians and enthusiasts.