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Books > Sport & Leisure > Transport: general interest > Ships & shipping: general interest
The islands surrounding Scapa Flow made one of Britain's best
natural harbours, while the location at the north of Scotland
protected the approaches to the North Sea and Atlantic. The naval
base was important during both wars but what makes Scapa Flow
famous is its wrecks, the remains of a German fleet, which once
numbered some 74 vessels, most of which were scuttled in 1919, as
well as the war graves of HMS Royal Oak and HMS Vanguard. The
wrecks of the navy ships still survive, along with eight German
warships for which a second war came and prevented salvage. Now a
divers' paradise, the wrecks of Scapa Flow bring divers from all
over the world and employ many in Orkney itself. This is the story
of the ships of Scapa Flow, their sinking and their salvage, using
many previously unseen images of the recovery and subsequent
removal of many of the German battleships and cruisers to Rosyth
dockyard in Fife for breaking up.
This is a masterly, immensely readable and totally convincing
narrative of 500 years of this great and mightily important British
industryIn fact, this new book describes with great insight and
clarity the development, growth and decline of two industries:
first, the highly skilled trade of crafting wooden sailing ships;
and, second, the story of the iron and steel shipbuilding industry
that took its place.At one time dozens of small yards were busy
building the small wooden trading vessels that were the mainstay of
British trade with the world, but with the advent of steam power,
and of iron hulls, the British industry gradually became
concentrated in a few great shipbuilding regions such as the North
East, the Clyde and Belfast.
This book is a detailed comparative study of the decorative work -
figurehead, topside ornamentation and stern gallery design -
carried by the ships of the major maritime states of Europe in the
zenith of the sailing era. It covers both warships and the most
prestigious merchant ships, the East Indiamen of the great
chartered companies. The work began life in the year 2000 when the
author was commissioned to carry out research for an ambitious
project to build a full-size replica of a Swedish East Indiaman,
which produced a corpus of information whose relevance stretched
way beyond the immediate requirements of accurately decorating the
replica. In tracking the artistic influences on European ship
decoration, it became clear that this was essentially the story of
the baroque style, its dissemination from France, and its gradual
transformation into distinct national variations in Britain, the
Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden. It is an inherently visual subject
and the book illustrates developments with numerous photographs of
contemporary ship models, paintings and plans, as well as the
author's own interpretive illustrations of details. As the first
major work on the topic for nearly a century, it will be of obvious
appeal to ship modellers and historians, but with comparative
examples drawn from architecture and sculpture, it also makes a
broader contribution to the history of the applied arts.
The author aims to give 'a concise and practical presentation of
the processes involved in designing a modern yacht'.... so that the
operations can be grasped by men without a technical education.
...There are chapters on displacement, the lateral plane, design,
stability, ballast, the sail plan, and construction. A thirty-foot
cruiser is made the basis of the calculations, and a number of
tables is appended to abridge the figuring of important details.
The book is illustrated with numerous outline drawings and plates.
The book will undoubtedly be serviceable to everyone interested in
the subject and possessed of enough technical knowledge to
understand it. -N. Y. Times
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