John Batchelor (2) (1936–)

Ian Hogg was an undoubted expert in artillery, finishing a 27 year career as Master Gunner at the Royal Military College of Science. He published this book the year he retired, launching a second career as a military historian. This is a breezy stroll through the history of gunnery. Everything from the 13th century up to the Crimean War gets about a dozen pages, and then Hogg launches into his love of breach mechanisms, recoil control, and some of the art of fire direction. He talks about show more trends towards light airborne guns and self-propelled cannons. The text is very much in the idiom of the British crank expounding on his collection of butterflies, or sailor's knots, or heavy siege howitzers.

But where this book shines is in the illustrations by John Batchelor, who was knighted for his contribution to technical drawing (no seriously). In oil and ink, Batchelor makes his machine subjects come to life in beautiful detail. The loading mechanism of the M51 is enough to make a grown man weep. Well, that might be an exageration, but I recommend this book as a general guide to gunnery pre-1970. show less

It has a grand title, but fundamentally this book is a sequence of different ships. Some are specific well-known vessels while others are generic types, each discussed in a couple of pages (or 4 for larger entries) with perhaps a couple of small illustrations, all in colour, and mostly with brief data (size, speed, complement etc) where available.

I can't really recommend this book! It is a smallish glossy 'coffee table' book and as such would be ideal for a general reader as a basic show more introduction to the subject were it not for too many faults: it isn't an "encyclopaedia" nor is it in any way "complete"; many important entries are superficial, while other less consequential entries are exaggerated; some of the choices seem rather bizarre (eg several America`s Cup racers); with one or two exceptions, it is almost entirely dedicated to 'western' vessels; it is littered with errors; virtually every page contains one or more irritating 'typos'; the opening 'history of sail' chapter is far too shallow. show less

As a kid, this was one of my favorite books. My poor copy is falling apart, the spine is coming off, and ironically (or aptly) its water damaged. Good times.