Time, chance, and organizations: Natural selection in a perilous environment

Business & Money

Kaufman, Herbert

Management & Leadership

Chatham

By the end of the sailing era the 50-gun ship had become regarded as a hybrid, too small to stand in the line of battle, and lacking the speed and hardiness of the frigate, so it has often been dismissed as a naval architectural dinosaur left over from an earlier age. This book aims to reveal the crucial role of the 50-gun ship in the development of both the battleship and the frigate, and explains the enduring role which ensured the survival of the type into the 19th century. Charting its origins in the pre-Commonwealth frigates, the author follows the development of the type in the 18th century and its gradual transition from battlefleet to heavy cruiser role, highlighting its revival for the special conditions of colonial warfare during the American Revolution. Thereafter they were employed as peacetime flagships for distant stations, achieving final glory leading small craft in anti-invasion operations during the Napoleonic War. The Leopard is the subject of the cutaway drawings.

The 50-Gun Ship (Shipshape Series)

WINFIELD, Rif

History

Nelson Against Napoleon: From the Nile to Copenhagen, 1798-1801 (Chatham Pictorial Histories)

Gardiner, Robert, ed.

Europe

Japanese Cruisers of the Pacific War

Lacroix, Eric & Linton Wells II.

Military

Flag 4 is the signal for "attack with torpedoes," and this book offers a thrilling account of the actions of British motor torpedo boats in the Mediterranean during World War II. The smallest fighting ships of the Royal Navy, these torpedo boats could fight in the shallowest waters, penetrate minefields, and hide in the inlets of enemy-held islands. From 1940 to 1943 they were the only surface craft continually able to seek out and attack Axis forces. Filled with action backed by telling details, the book describes night assaults on enemy convoys, clandestine operations, and Special Boat Squadron missions in North Africa and Yugoslavia. It is based on the eyewitness accounts of the officers and men who served in these perilous actions. Author Dudley Pope also looks at the question of why both the Allies and Axis forces fought so hard for what were mostly just large expanses of sand and water. Pope’s vivid writing style, reminiscent of his popular novels, will appeal to general readers as well as students of World War II naval actions.

Flag 4: The battle of Coastal Forces in the Mediterranean

Dudley Pope

Anthony Deane's account of the 28 year career of Nelson's favourite ship the Agamemnon describes life and death in the Royal Navy when the ships were made of wood and the men of iron. For three of the most crucial decades of British naval history, the Agamamnon was at the centre of events, fighting at the Saintes, Copenhagen and Trafalgar. She later served in the West Indies, was present at the Battle of Santo Domingo, and later in South America, where she was wrecked off the coast of present-day Uruguay in 1809. As well as telling the story of the ship, this book provides information on the operations of Britain's "wooden walls", accounts of conditions of life at sea, and full histories of all the campaigns the Agamemnon was involved in.

Nelson's Favourite : Hms 'Agamemnon' at War, 1781-1809

Anthony Deane

This is a revised edition of a popular history, first published in 1986, of the flags flown at sea during the Age of Sail. Beautifully illustrated with more than one hundred thirty photographs--seventy-four in color--it features the flags flown by the principal naval powers--Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United States. The clear narrative unravels myths and misunderstandings about where, when, and why certain flags--like the piratical "Jolly Roger"--were flown. It also tackles such complicated issues as signaling in peace and war. Contemporary flag charts and specially commissioned drawings provide the degree of detail necessary for modelmakers, artists, and historians. The remarkable amount of information presented on the all-important functions of identification and signaling at sea makes an important contribution to the literature.  

Flags at Sea

Engineering & Transportation

Timothy Wilson

Engineering

An objective and enthralling account of the sinking of the Lusitania, which unravels many of the myths and, for the first time, explains the true significance of that terrible disaster.The saga of the Lusitania is one of the most remarkable in the annals of maritime history. State-of-the-art when she went into service and the first express liner to be equipped with steam turbines, she outclassed all her rivals. She triumphantly restored British supremacy on the North Atlantic passenger routes and became an acknowledged commercial success; she was highly popular with her regular passengers. Her sinking in May 1915 by a German U-boat, with heavy loss of life, was at that time the most savage attack on civilians in the course of war, and was widely denounced in allied and neutral countries. From that day her loss has become encrusted with legends (including conspiracy theories), many of them created by German propaganda. In this new book David Ramsay has unraveled those myths and legends and tells a clear and compelling saga of terrible maritime disaster and clashes among three powerful nations. It is a story of potentates and presidents, ambassadors and ministers of state, bankers, shipping magnates, spies, and, not least, Captain William Turner, who had to defend himself against charges of incompetence and fight for his reputation. Based on detailed research, this new book almost certainly contains the most objective account of the history of the liner and the circumstances surrounding her sinking. The sinking of Lusitania, which took a mere eighteen minutes, led to a loss of life comparable with the Titanic disaster, and the ramifications were felt across Europe and America; this masterly telling of the story will intrigue the general reader as much as it does the historian and enthusiast. Illustrations and maps

Lusitania : Saga and Myth

RAMSAY, DAVID

The celebrated author of the Hornblower series presents the biography of Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson, the victor of the naval battle of Trafalgar.

Lord Nelson

C.s.forester

Biographies & Memoirs

Nelson Encyclopedia

Even after two centuries, interest in Nelson shows no signs of abating. New research continues to reveal previously unsuspected aspects of his life and career, even in the face of the old persistent myths. The Nelson Encyclopedia covers the people, ships, places, and events associated with the admiral, and extends to contemporary issues such as changing interpretations of his actions and motivation. This outstanding reference book sets out to answer any question about Lord Nelson likely to be raised, either by casual reference or in a more detailed study of the navy, the wars, or the social history of the period. This is the ultimate source book on the life and times of Britain’s greatest naval hero.

The Nelson encyclopaedia

WHITE, Colin

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Books by Chatham