The World of the Battleship: the Design and Careers of Capital Ships of the World 1900-1950

摘要

This handsome volume claims to present all the aspects of the age of the battleship through the careers of 21 vessels from the world's navies, in effect 'A Life and Times' of each ship. The title presents a certain awkwardness, as the expression 'Capital Ship' is not a precise synonym for 'Battleship'. The battleship, a large, heavily armed and armoured warship, was indeed the capital ship from about 1880, but was joined by the 'battle cruiser' around 1911. The 'capital ships' here total 21, from 21 navies; for Argentine and Greece, smaller, weaker armoured cruisers have been substituted for full-sized battleships. The Netherlands and Scandinavian countries lacked large armoured ships entirely, so coast-defence ships have perforce been chosen; a second cutoff, ship size, means that Peru, Portugal, Mexico and Thailand, which all owned small armoured ships, are excluded. Each chapter has been written by a specialist drawing on published and archival sources, resulting in the presentation of much material seldom seen in English-language naval books.