ebooks Warships of the Napoleonic Era: Design; Development and Deployment by Robert Gardiner in History

Review

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. interesting bookBy Jiri PastaAn interesting book that will help me in my business model. Just a pity that the ships of Spain; France and Holland are mentioned only marginally.5 of 5 people found the following review helpful. Very attractive and informativeBy Jim DavisI am reviewing the expanded 2011 edition of the book; not the original 1999 edition. Most of the previous reviews are of the original edition. The 2011 edition is about 12" x 12" of 168 pages. There are four pages that foldout to produce a four page spread.The text by Robert Gardiner is outstandingly informative. It explains concisely the reasons for the variety of ship types; what functions they were intended to serve; and why they were designed and built the way they were. I doubt any reader will come away with no better understanding of these ships than he started with. For me; the discussion of the sloop was especially illuminating.The illustrations are mainly of three types which is to be expected of a pre-photography era. There are a) reproductions of contemporary artwork; b) reproductions of surviving plans; and c) photographs of surviving ship models. All three are well captioned and support the text very well. The ship plans are reproduced at many different sizes but usually big enough for the relevant details to be picked out. It would have been nice to have some indication as to how large these plans actually are and to what scale they were drawn. The aforementioned four page spread reproduces a ship plan across all four pages but indications are that the original is much larger.The book is very much a British centric one. The plan of the book is to use the Royal Navy as a more or less "standard" navy. Its various ship types are described and explained in separate chapters. Then the other navies ships; strategies; and resources are described in terms of how they differ from this "standard" in their own chapters. This has the advantage of avoiding a lot of repetition but I'm not entirely sold that it does justice to the various navies.I should point out that this book is not for the sailing navy novice. The book (and Gardiner's books in general) assume a certain degree of familiarity with the subject.Highly recommended.15 of 15 people found the following review helpful. The Intricacies of Ship DesignBy Kevin F. KileyRobert Gardiner has done us all a great service with his series of books on the sailing navies; and the war in which they engaged. This book is no different and is a valuable addition to the series.It is a book of sailing ship plans of all the main; and some of the smaller; belligerents of the French Revolutionaly and Napoleonic Wars. It is somewhat on the line of Chappelle's superb History of the American Sailing Navy; although not as comprehensive. Still; it is scholarly; has Admiralty plans of dozens of warships; from the ship of the line; through frigates; sloops; and brigs; to the lowly bomb ketches.The narrative is authoritative; and the author knows his subject matter thoroughly. This is not a book about naval warfare per se; it is a book about ship design among the different belligerents. I didn't consider it one for pleasure reading; but more of a reference work that can be a great aid to researchers; modelers; and wargamers.This book is highly recommended; but it you're looking for a book that 'telleth of much fyte;' this is not it. For that I recommend others by Robert Gardiner such as his excellent Naval War of 1812. I am looking forward to his book on frigates; which will be a welcome addition to the genre.