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Naval Shipbuilders of the World: From the Age of Sail to the Present Day

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Publisher: Chatham Publishing
List Price: $49.95
Our Price: $101.71
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From the construction of primitive war galleys in the first millenium BC to today's most technically advanced warship, historians have paid almost exclusive attention to the famous ships and their naval battles. This book fills a void in maritime history by providing comprehensive information on the shipyards--past and present--that built those ships. Concentrating on the last three hundred years, the author includes a concise history of the world's major naval shipyards, a map showing their locations, and for certain key shipyards, a diagram showing the general layout of the facilities. In addition, he covers warship evolution from wood and canvas to steam, steel, and electronics, as well as the concurrent changes in building methodology. Tapping a wide variety of international sources, this survey adds a fresh and fascinating perspective to the epic quest for seapower. Generously illustrated with photographs, maps and plans, it will be a welcome addition to any naval history bookshelf.


DESCRIPTION:

Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 338.4762383
EAN: 9781861761217
ISBN: 186176121X
Label: Chatham Publishing
Manufacturer: Chatham Publishing
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 384
Publication Date: 2000-04-12
Publisher: Chatham Publishing
Studio: Chatham Publishing


SIMILAR ITEMS:

• US Cruisers 1883-1904 (New Vanguard)


CUSTOMER REVIEWS:

Customer Rating:
Summary: A useful tome, but far from comprehensive
Comment: I got this book only today and had a quick browse through it.

The book covers a total of 26 shipbuilding nations. However, most of the countries get very basic coverage. Britain gets 91 pages of coverage, the US 85. Then it's Germany with 31, Italy 21, France 17, Japan 16, Russia 15, Netherlands 11, Denmark 6. The rest - Norway, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, Austria-Hungary, Greece, Turkey, Poland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, China, Argentina, Brazil and Chile - get three or four pages at most, and usually only one or two. Given that each chapter attempts to cover the entire shipbuilding history of that country from antiquity, you can imagine how basic some of these chapters are.

I personally am not bothered by the disproportionate coverage given to the US and Britain because these are the two countries whose shipbuilding programs are of most interest to me. But I have to wonder what the point is of having a third of the book dedicated to a handful of pages for each of these other countries. I think the author would have been better to just concentrate on the US and Britain and forget the rest. He might then have given really comprehensive coverage to these two nations at least.

Instead, the book mostly covers only major naval shipyards, which is to say, shipyards (both commercial and government run) which have built capital warships. There is little coverage given to major commercial shipyards which built naval auxiliaries (unless they also built capital ships). There is also virtually nothing here about the smaller but still significant naval yards. For example, during World War II smaller US shipyards like Commercial Iron Works and Albina Engine Works collectively turned out literally thousands of Destroyer Escorts, Sub Chasers, Minesweepers, Landing Craft, naval service vessels etc., but there is almost no mention of these.

There are also some strange anomalies and omissions. For example, in the US section, Ingalls Shipbuilding, which built four escort aircraft carriers and 20 attack transports during the war, gets some coverage. But Western Pipe & Steel gets only one line, mentioning that it built "12 destroyer escorts" during the war. This is a joke. Like Ingalls, Western Pipe & Steel also built four escort carriers - along with 14 attack transports, 7 high-tech icebreakers (which served well into the 1980s) and dozens of other smaller naval vessels. The "12 destroyer escorts" mentioned in this book represents about 15,000 tons out of the almost 400,000 tons of shipping in total that the company produced during the war!

The numbers for Ingalls Shipbuilding also appear to be suspect - according to my sources, Ingalls only built 20 attack transports, not 22, and the "43 Type C3 transports" doesn't add up either (minus the 20 APA's, and the four C3's converted into escort carriers, it should be only 38). The book says the first ship Ingalls built, the Exchequer, was the world's first ship built with an all-welded hill. But that was the Exchester, not the Exchequer, Exchequer was the company's second ship. Errors and omissions like this do not inspire confidence.

A lesser gripe is that the shipyards are listed by location rather than by company. Thus, big companies with many different shipyards, like Bethlehem Steel or Todd Shipyards, are not covered under their own heading, which means you don't get a comprehensive summary of their development. Instead, you have to go to the index and look up all the different shipyards run by those companies, and try to piece things together yourself. The author may have done well to have a separate section on shipbuilding firms which operated in multiple locations.

On the plus side, the author certainly does his best to pack as many facts as possible into his 380 pages. A quick potted history of the development of naval shipbuilding in each country is quite handy, as are the shipyard maps. Major shipyards can get as much as a couple of pages of text apiece, while smaller ones get a few paragraphs - although as I've already pointed out, coverage of the smaller yards is far from comprehensive.

In summary I would say the author has done a pretty decent job in the space available, but I think a one-volume history trying to cover the entire world's naval shipbuilders is overambitious. I would have preferred to see, perhaps, a two-volume set, covering Britain and the US in one volume, and the rest of the world in the other. What I'd really like though would be a set of books dedicated to ALL the shipbuilders in a given country, naval and commercial, major and minor. This book lacks the detail and comprehensive coverage I crave, but given that this appears to be a somewhat neglected area, I guess it's a start.

The book is a nicely bound hardcover. Pages are matt white and with a moderately sized font. As well as the in-text diagrams of shipyards, there is a small group of shipyard photos in the centre.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A unique contribution to naval historical literature
Comment: The book by Robert Winklareth has undoubtedly a unique place among books concerning naval history. There are some books dedicated to history of individual shipbuilders, but this is probably the first book describing history of naval shipbuilders throughout the world.

The book consists of 12 chapters, glossary, bibliography, and index (384 pages of text plus 16 pages of illustrations). After introductory chapter about evolution of naval shipbuilding follows a description of all naval shipbuilders, country by country. Each chapter is dedicated to any of major naval powers (UK, USA, France, Japan, Germany, Italy, Russia, The Netherlands) or groups of states (Scandinavia, Other European Nations, The Rest of World). There is a clear attempt to describe history of all naval shipbuilders and even naval facilities involved in maintenance of warships. Description of each shipbuilder usually includes its location, history, and names of major warships built there (however, there is not a separately list of those warships - their names are mentioned throughout the text). Description of major shipbuilders is usually accompanied by a simple scheme/map showing location of docks, slipways, basins, and other facilities. There are also simple maps showing location of dockyards, shipyards, and naval bases.

Not surprisingly, the most detailed description relates to shipbuilders from the UK and the USA. Comprehensive description is dedicated also to shipbuilders from France, Japan, Germany, Italy and The Netherlands (description of Russian shipbuilders will be examined separately). Shipbuilders of other countries are described sufficiently, although usually not in more detail. Moreover, the latest developments are omitted for some countries (for example, construction of the Halifax-class frigates in Canada during the 90s is not mentioned). However, as more problematic feature of the book seems to be omission of some countries as for example Finland, South Africa or both Koreas.

Another problematic feature of the book is unbalanced description of Russian shipbuilders. There is a sufficient description of shipbuilders located in Baltic area, especially in St.Petersburg. On the other hand, description of other major Russian shipbuilders is only brief and sometimes inaccurate. For example building of submarines in Krasnoe Sormovo Shipyard in Nizhni Novgorod (during Soviet era named Gorki) is described as only construction of "pre-fabrication of submarine sections that are transported to other shipyards for final assembly" (p. 307). Krasnoe Sormovo Shipyard has built, in fact, 21 nuclear subs (!) and dozens of conventional subs. Minor Russian naval shipbuilders are not mentioned at all. Not very detailed description of Russian naval shipbuilders is understandable because of absence of reliable sources in English language. There are, however, many books and articles in Russian language concerning history of naval shipbuilding in Russia/USSR published in recent years. The most comprehensive source seems to be the book "Istoria otechestvennogo sudostroenia" (History of Home Shipbuilding) in five volumes published during 1991-1996. Unfortunately, this excellent book is useful only for those naval enthusiasts who are able to read in Russian.

Conclusion: The book "Naval Shipbuilders of the World" represents undoubtedly a significant contribution to naval historical literature. It should not miss in library of each naval enthusiast. Weaknesses mentioned above do not reduce overall value of this book. Nevertheless, any complementary book fulfilling omissions and amending inaccuracies would be desirable.

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