British Cruisers of the Victorian Era - Norman Friedman - Seaforth

Description: **PLEASE READ** I WILL PROVIDE A SHIPPING QUOTE IF YOU PURCHASE MULTIPLE ITEMS. PLEASE AWAIT MY COMBINED SHIPPING INVOICE FOR MULTIPLE ORDERS IF POSSIBLE. IF YOU ONLY BUY ONE ITEM YOU CAN GO AHEAD AND PAY. I HAVE DISABLED AUTOPAY FOR BUY IT NOW ITEMS, BUT ITEMS BOUGHT VIA BEST OFFER ARE USUALLY PAID FOR STRAIGHT AWAY WITH AUTOPAY REMEMBER - IT IS MORE ECONOMICAL TO BUY MULTIPLE PURCHASES AND PAY ONE POSTAGE COST. I WILL ALWAYS TRY AND WORK WITH YOU TO GET THE BEST POSTAGE RATE, AND I WILL REFUND ANY OVERPAYMENT WHERE I CAN. -------------------------------------------------- British Cruisers of the Victorian Era - Norman Friedman - Seaforth Publishing A typically outstanding volume from renowned American maritime expert and author Norman Friedman. Beautifully illustrated and masterfully researched, it will keep you engrossed for months . Superb! As usual, the book has many magnificent photographs and drawings (by A D Baker) and is written in a manner that's makes the passage of the complicated technical changes simple to follow - It is very interesting and entertaining read which should not be missed. Here's the product info: Gradually evolving from sailing frigates, the first modern cruiser is not easy to define, but this book starts with the earliest steam paddle warships, covers the evolution of screw-driven frigates, corvettes and sloops, and then the succeeding iron, composite and steel-hulled cruising ships. The story ends with the last armoured cruisers, which were succeeded by the first battlecruisers (originally called armoured cruisers), and with the last Third Class Cruisers (Topaze class), all conceived before 1906. Coverage, therefore, dovetails precisely with Friedman's previous book on British cruisers, although this one also includes the wartime experience of the earlier ships. The two central themes that emerge are cruisers for the fleet and cruisers for overseas operations, including (but not limited to) trade protection. The distant-waters aspect covers the belted cruisers, which were nearly capital ships, intended to deal with foreign second-class battleships in the Far East. The main enemies contemplated during this period were France and Russia, and the book includes British assessments of their strength and intentions, with judgements as to how accurate those assessments were. As would be expected of Friedman, the book is deeply researched, original in its analysis, and full of striking insights - another major contribution to the history of British warships. Here's an Amazon customer review (2012) which gives the book 5/5: The words are NOT my own and are for descriptive purposes only. For me, this is a wonderful book- one I have been 'waiting for' for many years. I have many of Norman Friedman's books and they are all excellent and well produced, though you have to accept his rather 'dry' style and a lack of critical appraisal of the ships performance in service. There is some of the latter here in the last chapter ('Fishers Revolution'), but it is not general elsewhere.Many books 'race over' the early Victorian period, but this one is quite comprehensive and 150 pages pass before we reach the William White Era and the key 'watershed' of the Naval Defence act of 1889.Mr Baker's line drawings are superb, though few of them illustrate the early ships. They include plan as well as profile views and are very detailed. Because these plans are all produced 'across the page' they are a bit small and have obviously been reduced from the originals- but space would have been an issue. Whilst I agree with another reviewer that armour layout would be nice to see, this would have required even more plans and since many cruisers only had deck and casement armour the presentation may not have been very informative.There are hundreds of photographs, many of which I have never seen before, which is excellent given that good photos taken before about 1885 can be very hard to find. I wonder if a greater page width, at expense of vertical depth, might not have been better, thus avoiding running some pictures across the binding, which is never really satisfactory. I do, however, applaud the large size of most of the photographs in the book.The text is very detailed, especially giving the political and technical background to the designs. For example Constructor William Whites' philosophy is well explained: for the Royal Navy, with its world- wide commitments, continuous sea speed and endurance mattered much more than 'headline' trial performance. Moreover before the arrival of Krupp armour White would not sacrifice vital deck protection for a very narrow belt or for an ineffective coating of thin plate. Later, the 'Cressy' class armoured cruisers were really as well protected as contemporary battleships and Mr Friedman considers them to be the true precursors of the battlecruiser. The author appreciates that when tested in battle during World War One all these ships had outdated technology, but although some features were misguided- such as lower deck casemates- there is every reason to suppose they would have performed as intended when new.There are interesting accounts of Armstrong and Vickers ships (including fine drawings of many of these), also comparison with important foreign designs, especially those of France and Russia. Perhaps unfortunately the small 'scout' cruisers of the Adventure, Forward, Pathfinder, Sentinel, Boadicea, Blonde and Active classes (1902- 12) are not included here- I now understand they are featured in Mr Friedmans second book on Destroyers instead.I would have liked the technical tables presented alongside the ship descriptions rather than all gathered at the end of the book, but everyone will have their own ideas about details such as that. All considered, this is a large (350 page) double format book, produced to a very high standard, and it is a work of scholarship. It is certain to become a recognised standard work and as such it is a real bargain even at the original published price 352 page hardcover published 2012 -------------------------------------------------- SHIPPING:UK Items usually sent by Royal Mail, with tracking SHIPPING: OVERSEAS ITEMS WORTH LESS THAN €150 / £135 From 1 July 2021, the Brexit transition period ends. 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Price: 25 GBP

Location: York

End Time: 2025-01-12T13:38:02.000Z

Shipping Cost: 46.4 GBP