History of the Navy at China Lake, California, V. 3. Tells the story of the creative military/civilian team who worked at the Naval Ordnance Test Station (NOTS) China Lake from 1948 to 1958.

The Royal Navy's small vessels and armoured cars in the Great War
This book has been created by Leonaur's editors by bringing together historical accounts from Conrad Cato's two books, 'The Navy in Mesopotamia 1914-17' and 'The Navy Everywhere.' Cato was a serving officer in the Royal Navy in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) and drew on his own experiences for his first book which originally-and unusually-contained both non-fiction and fictional pieces. The fiction has been removed from this edition to allow the whole of the author's second book, about the actions of the Royal Navy at war in East Africa and in the Cameroons, to be included here. Cato describes the activities of the first 'kite-balloon' ship, 'HMS Manica, ' at Gallipoli and in East Africa, before dealing with the Tangistani Raids in the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea patrol, the Aden patrol and the little known activities of the navy's armoured cars in Romania and in Serbia. Cato does not attempt to give a formal history, but instead informs us about these rarely reported campaigns through a series of related pieces, full of interesting information and laced with dialogue and anecdote, delivered in an entertaining, whimsical and occasionally humorous style. This is a unique Leonaur book about the naval war as it was fought by gunboats, sloops and other small vessels manned by small crews in exotic locations . The sailors of these vessels fought a war on rivers and lakes, they struggled through marshes and swamps or navigated inhospitable coasts in conflicts far removed from those experienced by the great battle fleets of the high seas. This book will be a pleasure to read for everyone interested in the period and is highly recommended. Includes useful maps to illustrate the text.
Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket; our hardbacks are cloth bound and feature gold foil lettering on their spines and fabric head and tail bands.

Originally published in 1927, this is a detailed biography of the famous sea-faring man. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Hesperides Press are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork. Contents Include The Age of Adventure Smith goes Abroad Travels Across Europe In Single Combat The Wandering Warrior Slave of Slaves The Colonial Idea The Voyage Out The Founding of Jamestown Relations With The Indians Organization and Administration Exploring Virginia Problems of Pioneering The Corn Supply Dangers and Adversities The End of Endeavour At Sea again Smith comes Ashore Appendix Bibliography Index

Originally published in 1936, this is a wonderful, autobiographical account of a life of adventure on the high seas. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Hesperides Press are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork. Contents Include: Pennsylvania Dutch - Shipwreck And A Haunted Ship - Shanghaied On The "Patagonia" - I Meet Sir Godfrey - Strange Happenings On The "Arethusa" - The Mandalay Caf - "Abandon Ship" - I Meet Joseph Conrad - Adventurer With A Cobra - I Come To The River Of Darkness - "Lord Jim" Takes A Wife - Strange Experiences Ashore And At Sea - The Great Samoan Hurricane - I Meet Robert Louis Stephenson - The Virgin of Barratonga - The Twin Pearls of Morea - Johnny The Lamb - Gunrunners, Cannibals, And Pirates - Holiday At Savaii - I Marry Elsie - Halfway Round The World - From Tigers To Sheep - The Boer War - I Meet Queen Victoria - Mutiny and Mystery - Tragedy of the Coolies - Escape From Port Arthur - Enough For The Present

An account of the naval commander Roger of Lauria and his command of warfare at sea. Just before Vespers on 30 March 1282 at the Church of the Holy Spirit on the outskirts of Palermo, a drunken soldier of the occupying French forces of Charles of Anjou accosted a young Sicilian noblewoman. It sparked a bloody conflagration, the so-called War of the Sicilian Vespers, that would ultimately involve every part of the Mediterranean. The struggle for the coveted throne of Sicily eventually enmeshed all the great powers of medieval Europe - thepope, the Byzantine Emperor and the kings of France, England and Aragon. Because the core of the Kingdom of Sicily was a wealthy, strategic island dominating the centre of the Mediterranean, the battles were fought mostly at sea.And in war at sea, a single figure proved pre-eminent: Roger of Lauria - Aragon's "Admiral of Admirals". In the course of some twenty years of naval combat, he orchestrated decisive victories in six pitched battles and numerous limited actions, never once suffering a defeat: a feat never equalled - not even by the legendary Lord Horatio Nelson. Drawing from multiple Sicilian and Catalan sources as well as Angevin and Aragonese registers, this chronological narrative details the tactics and strategy Lauria employed to become the most successful galley fleet commander of the Middle Ages, while highlighting a crucial conflict at a pivotal point in European history, long overshadowed by the Hundred Years War. CHARLES D. STANTON is a retired US naval officer and airline pilot; he gained his PhD at the University of Cambridge.

On June 15, 1942, as thousands of vacationers lounged in the sun at Virginia Beach, two massive fireballs erupted just offshore from a convoy of oil tankers steaming into Chesapeake Bay. While men, women, and children gaped from the shore, two damaged oil tankers fell out of line and began to sink. Then a small escort warship blew apart in a violent explosion. Navy warships and aircraft peppered the water with depth charges, but to no avail. Within the next twenty-four hours, a fourth ship lay at the bottom of the channel-- all victims of twenty-nine-year-old Kapitanleutnant Horst Degen and his crew aboard the German U-boat U-701.
In "The Burning Shore," acclaimed military reporter Ed Offley presents a thrilling account of the bloody U-boat offensive along America's east coast during the first half of 1942, using the story of Degen's three war patrols as a lens through which to view this forgotten chapter of World War II. For six months, German U-boats prowled the waters off the eastern seaboard, sinking merchant ships with impunity, and threatening to sever the lifeline of supplies flowing from America to Great Britain. Degen's successful infiltration of the Chesapeake Bay in mid-June drove home the U-boats' success, and his spectacular attack terrified the American public as never before. But Degen's cruise was interrupted less than a month later, when U.S. Army Air Forces Lieutenant Harry J. Kane and his aircrew spotted the silhouette of U-701 offshore. The ensuing clash signaled a critical turning point in the Battle of the Atlantic--and set the stage for an unlikely friendship between two of the episode's survivors.
A gripping tale of heroism and sacrifice, "The Burning Shore" leads readers into a little-known theater of World War II, where Hitler's U-boats came close to winning the Battle of the Atlantic before American sailors and airmen could finally drive them away.

U.S. and British naval power developed in quite different ways in the early 20th century before the Second World War. This study compares, contrasts, and evaluates both British and American naval power as well as the politics that led to the development of each. Naval power was the single greatest manifestation of national power for both countries. Their armies were small and their air forces only existed for part of the period covered. For Great Britain, naval power was vital to her very existence, and for the U.S., naval power was far and away the most effective tool the country could use to exercise armed influence around the world. Therefore, the decisions made about the relative strengths of the two navies were in many ways the most important strategic choices the British and American governments ever made. An important book for military historians and those interested in the exercise and the extension of power.

High Adventure on the China Seas
For readers who enjoy tales of naval adventure in non-fiction or fiction this book will not disappoint. The British author managed to squander his substantial inheritance in 4 years and turned to life as a merchant seamen in the latter part of 19th century. Eventually he found himself aboard an American screw steamer, captained by a 'devil-may-care' gun-runner, bound for Imperial China with a hidden cargo of arms in a desperate attempt to break through the blockade of the Japanese navy as the Sino-Japanese War raged through the East. Predictably matters went wrong immediately and he and his comrades were running for their lives as a cruiser's shells crashed into their vessel. The epic sea conflict, the Battle of Yalu followed and in Port Arthur James Allen was accidentally left ashore as the Japanese forces took the city by storm and he had to run once again and fight for his life with bayonet and axe among the alleys and burning houses of the city to avoid the massacre of the population that followed. A thrilling race to safety brought more dangers on board a floating hulk and a Chinese junk before his eventual rescue. This is an astonishing true story-the very foundation for exactly the kind of fictional adventure that was so popular in the early twentieth century and formed the characters of many of the most well known heroes of that time. Available in soft cover and hard cover with dust jacket for collectors.

In June 1941 the Ark Royal won one of Britain's most famous naval victories. The German destroyer, Bismarck, had been ravaging the British fleet in the Atlantic. Sailing through a ferocious storm the Ark Royal tracked the Bismarck. A dozen swordfish bombers took off from her deck and pounded shell after shell into the German battleship, sending her to the ocean floor. It was a signal victory that resonated around the world. Hitler, furious at the loss of the German fleet's flagship, demanded that the Ark Royal be destroyed at whatever cost. HMS Ark Royal is one of the Royal Navy's most iconic ships. When she was launched in 1938 she was one of the most sophisticated weapons at the disposal of British military command. The aircraft carrier was the latest, and soon to be one of the most feared, developments in naval warfare. In her first two years of operation the Ark Royal survived countless attacks, and was considered one of the luckiest ships in the Navy. But her air of invincibility was to prove wishful thinking. Within one month of sinking the Bismarck, the Ark Royal too was destroyed while sailing off the coast of Gibraltar. And there she has rested, one kilometre below the surface of the Mediterranean, until her wreck was discovered by Mike Rossiter in 2004. In gripping detail, and using the testimony of survivors of the sinking and men who lived, flew and fought on the Ark Royal, Mike Rossiter tells the remarkable story of the life and legend of this most iconic of ships. Also, and for the first time, he reveals the story of the quest to discover the wreck of this naval legend.

While we know a great deal about naval strategies in the classical Greek and later Roman periods, our understanding of the period in between--the Hellenistic Age--has never been as complete. However, thanks to new physical evidence discovered in the past half-century and the construction of Olympias, a full-scale working model of an Athenian trieres (trireme) by the Hellenic Navy during the 1980s, we now have new insights into the evolution of naval warfare following the death of Alexander the Great. In what has been described as an ancient naval arms race, the successors of Alexander produced the largest warships of antiquity, some as long as 400 feet carrying as many as 4000 rowers and 3000 marines. Vast, impressive, and elaborate, these warships "of larger form"--as described by Livy--were built not just to simply convey power but to secure specific strategic objectives. When these particular factors disappeared, this "Macedonian" model of naval power also faded away--that is, until Cleopatra and Mark Antony made one brief, extravagant attempt to reestablish it, an endeavor Octavian put an end to once and for all at the battle of Actium. Representing the fruits of more than thirty years of research, The Age of Titans provides the most vibrant account to date of Hellenistic naval warfare.

Chester Nimitz was an admiral's Admiral, considered by many to be the greatest naval leader of the last century. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Nimitz assembled the forces, selected the leaders, and - as commander of all U.S. and Allied air, land, and sea forces in the Pacific Ocean - led the charge one island at a time, one battle at a time, toward victory. A brilliant strategist, he astounded contemporaries by achieving military victories against fantastic odds, outpacing more flamboyant luminaries like General Douglas MacArthur and Admiral "Bull" Halsey. And he was there to accept, on behalf of the United States, the surrender of the Japanese aboard the battleship USS Missouri in August 1945. In this first biography in over three decades, Brayton Harris uses long-overlooked files and recently declassified documents to bring to life one of America's greatest wartime heroes.

Volume one of a classic seafaring memoir
George Coggeshall's name is a renowned one among American merchant seafaring men of the early nineteenth century. His writings on his own experiences and his history of the American Privateers are considered classics of the genre. In this, the first volume of Coggeshall's voyages, we join the author at the age of just sixteen aboard the schooner 'Charlotte'. These lively memoirs recount voyages, incidents at sea, colourful personalities, interesting ports and destinations and of course the true heroines of the sea themselves including 'Industry', 'Leo', 'Sea Serpent', 'Nymph' and others. This book is a must for all captivated by sailors and ships from the time when the maritime highways of the world were the domain of majestic sail. Available in soft cover and hard cover with dust jacket for collectors.

These essays explore the link between the naval strength and global power of Great Britain and the United States from 1815 to the present. The British Way of Warfare assumed that the country with control of the sea could ensure safe and rapid communications for its commerce. The American theory of naval strategy, on the other hand, assumed that one had to engage the enemy in order to assure command of the sea. These case studies illustrate once again that naval history must include cultural, economic, political, and social contexts.

From riverine operations in the American Civil War and China in the 1860s to the major fleet engagements of the World Wars, plus more recent naval actions in the Falklands/Malvenas War and Gulf War, Lindberg and Todd methodically show how geography has shaped the strategy, tactics, and tools of naval warfare. Alfred T. Mahan was perhaps the first naval professional to recognize and acknowledge fully the influence of geography on navies and naval warfare. Many of his principles of seapower were inherently geographical and influenced both what kind of naval force a state would possess and how it would be utilized. In the time that has passed since Mahan made his observations, naval warfare and navies have experienced major technological changes, yet geographical factors continue to exert their influence on how navies fight, how they are structured, and the design of the ships that they deploy.

After providing a comprehensive review of geostrategic theory and its application to naval warfare, the book is organized by major operational environments in which such warfare occurs--the high seas, littoral regions, and inland waterways. Lindberg and Todd illustrate how such geographical factors as distance, location, surface, and subsurface conditions influence naval operations, including fleet-to-fleet engagements, amphibious assault, coastal defense, logistical support, and riverine actions. A separate chapter takes an in-depth look at the ways in which geography influences navies themselves with issues such as primary mission type, force structure development, and ship design. Through the use of historical case studies, this volume applies long held geographical concepts to fundamental naval theories and practices to illustrate just how pervasive geography's influence has been during the past 140 years.

The Careers of Six Famous Royal Navy officers
The age of sail-particularly as it related to the Royal Navy-has, perhaps been justifiably, dominated by the great Nelson. His victory at Trafalgar meant that Britannia effectively did rule the waves and the threat of British sea power meant that the Royal Navy did not have to fight a major battle for a hundred years whilst the British Empire prospered. The often quoted and lauded 'Nelson Tradition, ' all but implies he originated it. In fact Nelson was part of an established tradition of great British seamanship that began before him, accompanied and supported him and survived his immediate passing. This book outlines the lives of some of the finest and most successful of those men-all famous in their own right and all remarkable despite their eclipse by the master, Nelson himself. The sea battles of Hawke, Jervis, Howe, Saumarez, Rodney and Pellew are expertly described here by Mahan-one of the finest historians of this subject-making it an essential read for all those interested in the exploits of the Royal Navy during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

On July 4, 1991, the Arleigh Burke class of destroyers, the most powerful surface combatants in naval history, was commissioned. It was the culmination of a century-and-a-half evolution of the destroyer—an evolution captured in this vivid and timely history of the world's most popular warship. Destroyers: An Illustrated History of Their Impact tells the story of one of the most-recent, most-rapidly evolving additions to the world's navies. Coverage ranges from the 1882 launch of the first destroyer, through the nonstop technical and strategic innovations of the world war eras, to the current high watermarks of destroyer design such as the Arleigh Burke class (named for the navy's most-famous destroyer squadron combat commander). With its ship-by-ship analysis, this masterful volume shows how destroyers have continually met the challenge of protecting naval and land operations from ever more dangerous attacks. The book also captures the flavor of shipboard life for officers and crew and looks at the crucial role of the destroyer as a standard-bearing status symbol of naval might and political intention.