Model makers, marine painters, and enthusiasts need to know not only how the ships were rigged but how much sail was set in each condition of wind and sea, how the various maneuvers were carried out, and the intricacies of operations like reefing sails or 'catting' an anchor.John Harland has provided what is undeniably the most thorough book on handling square-rigged ships. Because of his facility in a remarkable range of languages, Harland has been able to study virtually every manual published over the past four centuries on the subject. As a result, he is able to present for the first time a proper historical development of seamanship among the major navies of the world.

    combatant types, as well as plans, profiles, and numerous detailed photographs.

    -- Time. A. C, KR, SLJ. 1973.

    Davis here charts an anecdotal, highly personal course through our rich nautical history. Written in a style both entertaining and informal through which bubbles a genuine love of sailing vessels and sea lore, American Sailing Ships evokes the very feel of salt spray and rolling decks. In nearly 140 photographs, prints, and plans (most drawn by the author, an accomplished marine architect), you'll find a first-rate cross-section of a wide range of sailing ships from the eighteenth through early twentieth centuries. Here too is knowledgeable discussion of ship size, design, proportion, rigging details, and more. Included are Block Islanders, Clippers, Quoddy Boats, Packet Ships, Chebacco Boats, Bugeyes, Pinkys, Oyster Luggers, Fishing Schooners, Frigates, and others. American Sailing Ships offers lively discourse on shipbuilders such as 18th-century American designer Joshua Humphreys, whose frigates had no equal among the sailing men-of-war of any other nation; illuminating insights regarding crews, chains of command and life at sea; an account of how the Gloucester-built chebacco boat Fame earned the right to that name as a privateer during the War of 1812, outsailing and capturing vessels ten times its weight; and much more. Davis's classic work is sure to intrigue sailing enthusiasts, historians, Americana buffs, and model builders. American Sailing Ships, here in its first popularly priced paperback edition, promises the imaginative reader an unforgettable taste of seafaring excitement.

    The book is an extensively revised and extended version of the author's 1984 work The King's Ships Were at Sea. It covers the first six months of the First World War because very important things occurred in that time and, despite the loose ends that inevitably remain with four more years of conflict to follow, important things can be said. The focus is primarily on the British, but both the Germans and the Russians are integral to the study because neither the British nor the Germans' North Sea activities can be fairly assessed without giving due weight to the Baltic theatre of operations. This is an operational history, which balances coverage of the major incidents with treatment of the continuum of activity. The intent within the scene setting chapters is not to attempt a complete survey of the events of the previous decade, but to situate each navy within the environment of 1914.Before Jutland includes the battles of Heligoland Bight and the Dogger Bank, as well as the shock of the submarine and its effect on the operations of all the protagonists. In analysing these events, it seeks to provide the context within which the protagonists were actually working, without the application of excessive hindsight, because in 1914 so much was new and experimental. Observers are inclined to consider what is known as the 'Fisher Era' as a continuum from Admiral Fisher's accession as First Sea Lord in the British Admiralty in 1904; in reality the pace of operational development not only accelerated but became truly multi-lane only after about 1909, just before the great reformer went into his first retirement. The pressures at all levels within navies were therefore intensifying in the years immediately before the outbreak of the war in ways that were not fully understood.

    

    Over 190 historic photographs depict exterior and interior views of 101 great ocean liners, including the Virginian, Imperator, Vaterland, Bismarck, Lusitania, Mauretania, Balmoral Castle, Titanic, Olympic, Aquitania, and dozens more. ". . . worth the modest price of the book." — Steamboat Bill.