A fine overview of subs and sub-killers
This comprehensive book concerns the operations of the Royal Navy to deal with the enemy submarine threat in the conflict for the dominance of the seas and oceans during the Great War. The global nature of this first massive war of the twentieth century gave the submarine its first opportunity to be a significant and influential weapon. Such was its impact and so clandestine its sphere of operation that methods to oppose it were developed with urgency, ingenuity and variety. Here the reader is introduced to the hydrophone, the depth charge and other bizarre initiatives to combat the underwater predators. The Convoy system, mine-laying, mine-sweeping, nets and traps are covered in detail. Of particular interest are the ships specifically designed to destroy the submarines-here are the armed trawlers, the ships disguised as harmless merchant vessels, secretly armed to deliver deadly retaliation as their trap was sprung and the fast patrol and torpedo pursuit boats. Finally, the newest arm is described as sea-planes are developed and put into service to rain destruction down from the skies. A fine all round history on the subject excellently complimented by photographs and diagrams. Available in soft cover and hard cover with dust jacket.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

In 1682, Charles II invited his scandalous younger brother, James, Duke of York, to return from exile and take his rightful place as heir to the throne. To celebrate, the future king set sail in a fleet of eight ships destined for Edinburgh, where he would reunite with his young pregnant wife. Yet disaster struck en route, somewhere off the Norfolk coast. The royal frigate in which he sailed, the Gloucester, sank, causing some two hundred sailors and courtiers to perish. The diarist Samuel Pepys had been asked to sail with James but refused the invitation, preferring to travel in one of the other ships. Why? What did he know that others did not? Nigel Pickford's compelling account of the catastrophe draws on a richness of historical material including letters, diaries and ships' logs, revealing for the first time the full drama and tragic consequences of a shipwreck that shook Restoration Britain.

Based on hitherto unused sources in English and Spanish in British and American archives, in this book naval historian Barry Gough and legal authority Charles Borras investigate a secret Anglo-American coercive war against Spain, 1815-1835. Described as a war against piracy at the time, the authors explore how British and American interests - diplomatic and military - aligned to contain Spanish power to the critically influential islands of Cuba and Puerto Rico, facilitating the forging of an enduring but unproclaimed Anglo-American alliance which endures to this day. Due attention is given to United States Navy actions under Commodore David Porter, to this day a subject of controversy. More significantly though, through the juxtaposition of British, American and Spanish sources, this book uncovers the roots of piracy - and suppression- that laid the foundation for the tortured decline of the Spanish empire in the Americas and the subsequent rise of British and American empires, instrumental in stamping out Caribbean piracy for good.

This is the story of a man and a Navy--Vice Admiral Matome Ugaki and the Imperial Japanese Navy. By 1945 the Imperial Navy was physically destroyed and Admiral Ugaki was given the task of defending the Japanese homeland against attack, and he sent hundreds of kamikazes against the American naval forces operating around Okinawa. After Emperor Hirohito announced Japan's surrender on August 15, Ugaki stripped off his insignia of rank, climbed into a torpedo bomber, and flew to Okinawa, where he intended to crash into an American ship. But like so many of the other kamikazes, his mission was fruitless, his plane was shot down by American nightfighters. But Admiral Ugaki died, as he has promised to do, in the fashion of the thousands of young men he had sent to their deaths. Vice Admiral Matome Ugaki was the only high official of the Imperial Japanese Navy to have left a significant record, in the form of a diary started during the preparations for the China Incident, and kept throughout the war--from the planning phase of 1940, through the Pearl Harbor attack, and up until Japan's surrender. Hoyt draws on the diary and numerous other accounts by admirals and historians to create a picture of a Japanese Navy that began in a position of strength but was eventually destroyed by powerful Allied forces, shattering Japan's drive for conquest.

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.

Originally published in 1930, this is a wonderfully detailed look at the history of the Sailing Ship in the nineteenth century. Packed with photos and anecdotes, every major ship and Captain of the day is examined in depth. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Home Farm Books are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork. Contents Include: Types of Ships - The East Indiamen - American Superiority and Atlantic Packets - Navigation Laws, Utility Ships - Opium and Tea Clippers - Rushes To Californian and Australian Gold Fields, Some Fast Passages - Wool, Wheat and Emigrant Ships - Roaring Forties, Icebergs, Slow and Fast Passages, Etc - Disasters, Rescues, Etc - Life On A Sailing Ship

William S. Dudley, Editor, Michael J. Crawford, Associate Editor. Provides a detailed chronology of events leading to and various battles during the War of 1812. Introductory material describes the early development of the American Navy from 1775 through 1811. The chapters that follow include battle by battle descriptions of the war in the Atlantic, the Northern Lakes (Great Lakes), and the Gulf Coast. The document concludes with the USS Constitution's victory over the HMS Java on Dec. 29, 1812. This is a superior quality reprint of this volume originally published in 1985 by the Navy Historical Center, U.S. Department of the Navy.

In Post-war Japan as a Sea Power, Alessio Patalano incorporates new, exclusive source material to develop an innovative approach to the study of post-war Japan as a military power. This archival-based history of Asia's most advanced navy, the Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force (JMSDF), looks beyond the traditional perspective of viewing the modern Japanese military in light of the country's alliance with the US. The book places the institution in a historical context, analysing its imperial legacy and the role of Japan's shattering defeat in WWII in the post-war emergence of Japan as East Asia's 'sea power'.

This vivid volume describes the fascinating history of aircraft carriers, first deployed successfully in World War I by the Imperial Russian Navy, and indispensable to the Allied victory in World War II, now the strategic centerpiece of the world's most powerful navies. From their World War I deployment in the Black Sea by the Imperial Russian Navy, to their coming of age in World War II, to their role in recent conflicts in Vietnam, the Falklands, and the Persian Gulf, Aircraft Carriers: An Illustrated History of Their Impact charts the evolution of carrier systems both militarily and within broader political and diplomatic contexts. Covering both the ships and the planes they support, this convenient, authoritative handbook offers complete descriptions of carrier systems from all of the world's major navies-from their operational histories, strategic integration, and technological advancements, to the training of aircrew, the development of carrier command leadership, and the role of carriers as deterrents and diplomatic enforcers. Eighty photographs of all the important aircraft carriers from before World War I to the present, including many operated by lesser-known navies A reference section providing essential physical details, basic design information, modifications, and brief service histories for 80 aircraft carriers or classes from 1912 to the present

Nicholas Rogers' book gives the reader a detailed and illuminating insight into the world and ways of the press gang. The press gang, and its forcible recruitment of sailors to man the Royal Navy in times of war, acquired notoriety for depriving men of their liberty and carrying them away to a harsh life at sea, sometimes for years at a time. Nicholas Rogers explains exactly how the press gang worked, whom it was aimed at and how successful it was in achieving its ends. He also shows the limits to its operations and the press gang's need for cooperation from local authorities, who were by no means prepared to support it. Written by an expert in the social history of eighteenth-century Britain, it is both well-researched and highly readable.

""The art of command is...to be the complete master, and yet the complete friend of every man on board; the temporal lord and yet the spiritual brother of every rating; to be detached and yet not dissociated.' A Seaman's Pocket-Book, 1943', has found huge appeal with the British public. Presented in the same format, the Officer's Handbook gathers together useful advice and instruction for those naval officers fighting the Second World War on all aspects of their job, expressed in the benevolent language of the day, when authority was respected. The Handbook has been compiled and edited by Brian Lavery, who provides commentary and an introduction. Sections include: the Officer's Aid Memoire containing notes of the training course at one of the officer training schools; Notes for medical officers and treatment of battle casualties afloat; Notes for captains on taking command of their first ship; Notes for commanding officers; Notes on the handling and safety of ships and notes on dealing with disobedience and mutiny. While suffused with nostalgia and charm, the various contents of this book are an authentic presentation of matters of training, authority and deportment in the wartime navy. The book is sure to appeal not only to those who served in the war or had a relative who was in the officer class, but also to anyone who wants to gain a greater understanding of the day-to-day administration of the wartime navy.