Handbook of 19th Century Naval Warfare
£25.00
Stock type: -
Stock reference: 44.048
£25.00
Stock type: -
Stock reference: 44.048
Spencer Tucker's illustrated narrative account of this crucial transitional phase in naval history opens with a summary of the changing technology, tactics, and strategy in the early 1800s, followed by accounts of the wars of the Napoleonic period and the factors that led to British naval supremacy.
The author reviews the naval situation before the First World War, examining naval thought and international attitudes towards battleship size and speed versus armour. Also described are the revolutions that followed in naval ordnance, propulsion, iron hulls and underwater warfare. All of these important changes were put into practice in the Crimean, Sino-Japanese, Russo-Japanese, Spanish-American and American Civil Wars.
Much of the book is devoted to technological changes. The Napoleonic Wars at the beginning of the century were the height of the age of fighting sailing ships, typified with wooden-hulled vessels mounted with muzzle-loading guns firing projectiles weighing up to 68lb. By the early twentieth century warships were of steel and powered by coal or oil-fired steam boilers driving screw propellers and mounted with breech-loading guns and ordnance weighing up to a ton.
The book concludes with an overview of the world naval balance on the eve of the First World War. It is authoritatively written and illustrated
Spencer C Tucker, Professor of Military History, Virginia Military Institute, USA
Hardback. 263x194mm. 282 pages
150 black & white illustrations
Return to
Naval Vessels & Battles
Saxon Court Books, part of Blue Heron Network Ltd, PO Box 235, East Molesey, KT8 1WE
Telephone or Fax: 020 8783 1024