Product Description

"Fighting Ships 1850-1950" presents a stunning collection of 150 large-scale paintings, drawings, photographs and ship plans that tell the story of naval warfare from the first iron and steam warships to the deadly U-boats and aircraft carriers of the Second World War. Over these 100 years, the most significant naval engagements are dramatically depicted in striking detail - the bombardment of Sveaborg during the Crimean war, the battles of Tsushima and Jutland, the attack on Pearl Harbour, the Battle of Midway, the evacuation of Dunkirk and the D-Day landings, as well as the Japanese surrender - revealing the glory and exhilaration of the last great age of marine warfare.Arranged chronologically, the ships illustrated include HMS Warrior, the first iron-hulled, heavily armoured warship; the mighty HMS Dreadnought; the battleship Aurora which ignited the Russian revolution; the Graf Spee, under attack on the River Plate; the formidable German battle cruiser Bismarck; the British aircraft carriers HMS Argus and Illustrious, and the Japanese Akagi, amongst many others. This remarkable collection not only showcases some of the greatest naval artists of the period, including John Wilson Carmichael, Gustave Bourgain, McClelland Barclay, Kobayashi Kiyochika, William Lionel Wyllie, and the official British war artist Richard Eurich, but also features powerful photographs, often taken by the sailors themselves. Each image is accompanied by Sam Willis' expert commentary, shedding light on the key naval conflicts of the era, the breathtaking complexity of the modern warship - as well as life and death on board ship for the ordinary sailor.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19687 in Books
• Published on: 2008-07-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

Review
outstanding quality of reproduction...Willis accompanies the images with incisive text --Navy News

From the Inside Flap
The Battle of Jutland, 1916: two huge fleets face each other across the North Sea in the largest naval engagement of the First World War. In one dramatic photograph, smoke billows from the mortally wounded Queen Mary; in another, the German battlecruiser Seydlitz lies crippled by a final salvo from the British ship. Together these images capture the triumph and tragedy of this momentous battle that was to turn the course of the Great War.
Fighting Ships 1850-1950 presents a stunning collection of 150 large-scale paintings, drawings, photographs and ship plans that tell the story of naval warfare from the first iron and steam warships to the deadly U-boats and aircraft carriers of the Second World War. Over these 100 years, the most significant naval engagements are dramatically depicted in striking detail - the bombardment of Sveaborg during the Crimean war, the battles of Tsushima and Jutland, the evacuation of Dunkirk, the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Battle of Midway, and the D-Day landings, as well as the Japanese surrender - revealing the glory and exhilaration of the last great age of marine warfare. Arranged chronologically, the ships illustrated include HMS Warrior, the first iron-hulled, heavily armoured warship; the mighty HMS Dreadnought; the cruiser Aurora which ignited the Russian revolution; the Graf Spee, under attack on the River Plate; the formidable German battleship Bismarck; the British aircraft carriers HMS Argus and Illustrious, and the Japanese giant Akagi, amongst many others.
This remarkable collection not only showcases some of the greatest naval artists of the period, including John Wilson Carmichael, Gustave Bourgain, McClelland Barclay, Kobayashi Kiyochika, William Lionel Wyllie, and the official British war artist Richard Eurich, but also features powerful photographs, often taken by the sailors themselves. Each image is accompanied by Sam Willis's expert commentary, shedding light on the key naval conflicts of the era and the breathtaking complexity of the modern warship, as well as the stories of heroic commanders, and life - and death - on board ship for the ordinary sailor.

From the Back Cover
A magnificent record of the last great age of sea warfare in 150 striking images.
"A black vicious ugly customer as ever I saw, whale-like in size, and with as terrible a row of incisor teeth as ever closed on a French frigate" Charles Dickens on HMS Warrior

Customer Reviews

Stunning Artwork
This massive tome is a visual delight. The huge format brings to life the artwork and I cannot wait to get my hands on the first volume. The cover price is £50 and even at that I would have been sorely tempted to buy.
Having said all that, as someone has already pointed out it is lacking in any form of technical details, but if you want that buy something like the anatomy of the ship series.
What text there is gives a reasonable overview of international naval events in this period, but it is really just extended captions for the pictures.
As a summary it is a useful addition to any library, but only if you are either not interested in technical details or already have them covered by other volumes.

A fine, beautiful, but awkwardly big book.
This book is beautifully illustrated and has very informative, informed text written beside most illustrations. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in modern history or even anyone who likes art or painting. There are some truly splendid images in this book, that are enhanced by their size. It is probably the closest we can get to travelling back in time to these eras. However, the size could be a disadvantage for some. It makes reading it a bit awkward in my opinion. To read this book comfortably, you would need a fairly big uncluttered table. The book is about as wide as a computer monitor, and one and a half times as tall as a computer monitor, and weighs about as much as four litres of milk. However, if you can overcome its bulkiness, you will find it a very, very enjoyable read.

The prefect coffee table book
Together with its companion book, Fighting Ships 1850-1950 is a joy to behold. The paintings, illustrations and maps conjure up the actual times and events in such a way you feel drawn into the actual period. This is the main strength of it and its sister publication.
Text is on the other hand a bit light but always to the point. It even manages to insert small tidbits of naval history and put them on the same level as major developments and naval engagements.
All in all a very enjoyable book, especially to peruse.