The Fighting Ship of the Royal Navy, 897-1984 [Complete Revised ed.] 0517633329, 9780517633328

Table of contents :
1. Alfred the Great to William the Conqueror 1
2. The Normans to the Tudors 3
3. The Tudor Navy and the Gun 8
4. The Elizabethan Galleon 15
5. Enlargements and Improvements Under James I and Charles I 20
6. The Rates 25
7. The Restoration 27
8. The Fighting Ship in the Eighteenth Century 33
9. The Nineteenth-century Wooden Battle Fleet 65
10. The Nineteenth-century Frigates and Other Cruising Vessels 80
11. The Coming of the Great Iron Frigate 93
12. Turret Versus Broadside 105
13. The Early Mastless Battleships 117
14. Iron- and Steel-built Masted Cruisers 131
15. The Torpedo 139
16. The Naval Defence Act of 1889 and the Navies of Foreign Powers 146
17. Screw-Steam Propulsion in the Second Half of the
Nineteenth Century 149
18. William White's Battleships 152
19. Watts and the Dreadnoughts 160
20. The Post-Dreadnought Battleships 175
21. The Battle-cruiser 179
22. The Mastless Steel Cruiser 191
23. The Return of the Armoured Cruiser 197
24. The Light-Cruisers 205
25. The Washington Treaty Cruiser 213
26. The Return of the 6-inch Cruiser 217
27. Torpedo-Gunboats and Destroyers 225
28. Sloops, Corvettes and Frigates 242
29. Post-Second World War Frigates and Destroyers 252
30. The Air Arm of the Navy 261
31. Submarines 277
32. Coastal Craft 293

Appendices
1. A Summary of British Naval Events from A.D. 897—1983 300
2. British and Enemy Losses (ships of over 50 guns) 1688—1855 321
3. Some Establishments of the Ships, Guns and Men 1517—1805.
from Memoirs of the Rise and Progress of the Royal Navy,
by Charles Derrick, 1806 324
4. Further Abstracts of the Strength of the Royal Navy to 1983 367
5. The Naval Surveyors from 1544 380
6. Two Gun Establishments from A Sea-man's Grammar by Captain
John Smith, 1627 381
7. Flags and Pendants of Command and Distinction 383
8. Types of Shot and Shell 390

Glossary of Nautical Terms 393

Bibliography 397

Index 399