Naval History

In 1372 a tribunal of arbitration sitting in Geneva found against Great Britain in a claim for damages brought by the United States. That claim stemmed from the destruction of commercial shipping during the American Civil War by Confederate raiders whose origins could be traced back to Britain. The most famous of these cruisers was the CSS Alabama, built on Merseyside. which captured sixty-four Yankee ships and destroyed most of them by burning.

So celebrated was her name and so great her share of the depredations committed that the Geneva Tribunal hearings were known as the Alabama Claims. The Alabama's escape from the Mersey in 1862, just hours ahead of a detention order issued by the British government, gave rise to suspicions and recriminations. At the American legation in London a tenacious secretary acquired a copy of a note allegedly written by one Victor Buckley a Foreign Office clerk, warning the Confederates of the ship's imminent seizure, and in later years the man responsible for building the Alabama referred in his memoirs to a "private and most reliable source" from whom he had received that vital information.

In the postmortem of events after the Civil War. an American newspaper published for the first time the implication that Buckleys position was worthy of scrutiny. The allegation that he had written a warning note was later repeated by a son of the wartime American foreign minister. Charles Francis Adams. For almost 150 years historians have debated the circumstances surrounding the Alabama's, remarkable and timely departure to wreak havoc on the high seas. Was there a Foreign Office leak, and if so, was it sanctioned by the British Government?

The radical MP John Bright suspected the worst and said so. The prime minister at the time, Lord Pahnerston, and his foreign secretary. Lord John Russell, denied it. With the passage of time, insufficient evidence, and events clouded by an extraordinary catalogue of errors and mishaps, the accusations seemed to die a natural death.

Another book by Angus Konstam, the author of the nice publications dedicated to the Pirate Ships ans Tudor Warships. All readers who have a look in this remarkably detailed and interesting title, will definitely find all beginnings of the naval attacks of the Spanish Main, commerce voyages of Hawkings, Drakes fascinating career, as well as attacks that have been directly sanctioned by Queen Elizabeth on Spanish areas and fleets, and many other relevant aspects.

The author of the book has provided a very comprehensive description of the different types of vessels, addressing their strengths and weaknesses. Among the other interesting points we would mention the relevant tactical doctrines that have seriously influenced both Spanish and English naval warfare, with the English warfare investing mainly in speed and firepower and the Spanish warfare investing in short-ranged firepower and boarding actions.

Numerous illustrative plates prepared by Angus McBride are really excellent. In short, the readers all around the planet have treated this volume as a worthy and truly impartial introduction to the subject, providing all required information about the topics covered. Definitely a nice book to have a look in.

The book by Clark Reynolds, is seeking to discover the constants and strategic alternatives that commonly govern the empires and their navies throughout a whole human history by means of raising the hypotheses for their testing by the historical examinations and future actions.

The author has therefore conducted the examination of the natural factors, for example topography and geography, together with the different important economic and political aspects of building the empires, touching the intellectual and even cultural manifestations, technologies and the matters of tactical evolution.

Combined together, all above mentioned elements are defining the concept of the sea power in the XIII century A.D. and in the XX century B.C. The present publication consists of seven major parts covering the command of the sea and different alternatives, oceanic age and early Thalassocracies, total wars era, and other aspects.

In addition to the text, this document includes a set of maps of the Mediterranean region, American Sea Lanes, the Ancient World in general, Asian periphery etc. The bibliography section lists the general sources of information used when preparing this book. A definitely recommended book to have a serious look.

The publication by Donald Lisio present a thorough study of British insistence on preservation of the naval supremacy during the time period covered, i.e. 1920s, together with the resulting resurgence of the naval and diplomatic antagonisms. The author is telling us an interesting story of the continuation of Anglo-American clash.

For some brief time during the First World War the Great Britain, Japan and USA closely co-operated forming a part of the Allied Coalition created to fight against the Central Powers. That was actually did much more than bring them all together on the battlefields. The present document is covering the most important aspects of this subject.

It covers the information related to the Geneva Naval Conference held in 1927 as well as the associated naval events that led up to it with the ultimate intention to add to the people's understanding of the international relationship as well as the arms-control diplomacy in that period of history by means of revealing that the political and economic, as well as the diplomatic control rationales were much less apparent struggles preserving the strategic naval supremacies.

Among the topics addressed in this title there were also combat equivalency and conference shocks, cabinet crisis and failures of the Anglo-Japanese accord, new strategies and political issues, as well as other information.

As the name of this historical publication implies, is has been mainly dedicated to one of the most famous naval warships in the history of naval shipping. It depicts the last days of service of this ship. The content of this work will definitely be very useful and interesting to people interested in the naval history, taking into account that it includes so much of information, providing readers with the one relating to the mission of this battleship in the context of the Germany's strategy of commerce reading, and providing a professional look at many tactical and strategic problems which the commanders of both sides faced at that time.

The narrative part of the document is remarkably highly detailed; however, note that the book does not descend too deep into technical descriptions. For all enthusiasts of the naval history, it will be extremely difficult to put this book down; we recommend this title to all people who like the studies of the naval battles of the past.

They will find an absolutely fresh look and the career of maybe the most famous ships of the German Navy in the Second World War, and also get a good fundamental background and several historical insights in the book, making many of the elements of the Bismarck's story much more understandable and clearer, through a very thorough treatment which includes the materials obtained from the interviews with the participants of that war.

In his interesting work, the professional naval historian and archaeologist Brian Fagan has tackled a very rich topic, namely enduring quest to master the world's oceans, considered one of the most mysterious terrains. It will be great for all people fascinated with the sea stories and also interesting in boats. The content of the publication is very readable, covering a good portion of the naval history from the earliest boat journeys in the Pacific Islands to the nineteenth century transportations.

The author has made an excellent attempt to capture the types of the journeys and reasons why the mariners of the ancient times needed to strike out past the horizon line. In some cases the author has also tried to capture the technical parts of the journeys covered, for example how the boats were boats and what materials were used for construction, how they navigated and manned, and other important and interesting matters.

He recommends to read this volume in a linear manner but to start with the epilogue. The book starts quite slow but them rapidly picks up steam. It includes lots of information related to the people from different eras, correct interpretations of the collected data and even several personal anecdotes making it a very fascinating reading.

This publication has been intended to describe the role Barrow's output of the war materials played in the total Great War effort, paying particular attention to the Barrovians and men who surrounded the South Lakeland area, people fighting abroad, and women war heroes.

The publication also includes valuable background information on the town's history, ship construction and iron ore, and it also provides a list of the vessels that were build at Barrow both before and during the Great War supplemented with the reference information on what exactly happened to each of those vessels. The author, Ruth Mansergh, has revealed the whole importance of the Barrow's industrial output.

He has also made an attempt to uncover some little-known stories and designed the content of this work in a manner allowing it to be accessible to every single reader. The publication may also serve as a reference guidance to the local soldiers of the First World War. Two appendices to the main text of the book provide some research guidance and contain the extract from the historical document.

The readers of this book will also find inside the information on the lost heroes of that War, recipients of the Victoria Cross and other relevant historical information.

This is a remarkably well-prepared and documented publication detailing the history of the Atlantic Ocean. Simon Winchester is telling a truly breathtaking story, blending geography with reminiscence and science with exposition. The author did a really amazing work weaving together the history and the human interest in the very readable manner. According to the numerous reviews, this title is a must-have publication for every naval historian and enthusiast.

The publication will provide readers with a deep and fresh insight into the ocean history. The information selected for inclusion into this book has been presented in a really interesting way for the readers. The author of the volume is a known and recognized person in the world of naval history and all his publication have been greatly appreciated by the readers all around the planes, but this particular book has been deservedly considered one of his best titles.

Being a best-seller author and consummate historian, he has set an excellent and epic text telling us not only the pure story of the Atlantic Ocean itself, but also the story of the whole human civilization. The readers will definitely like this resonant and penetrating tale of the humans finding their way across the history...