Naval category: 2015 books

A British naval historian recounts the victories and defeats of two of the most infamous German Navy vessels during World War II. Bernard Edwards’s Beware Raiders! tells the fascinating story of two German ships and the havoc they caused amongst Allied shipping in World War II. One was the...

In the tradition of Shadow Divers, this is the gripping true account of the search for German U-boat U-550, the last unfound, diveable wreck of a U-boat off the United States coast, and the battle in which it was sunk. On April 16, 1944, the SS Pan Pennsylvania was torpedoed and sunk by the...

The ShipCraft series explores the iconic pleasure vessels Titanic, Olympic, and Britannic in fully illustrated detail for building your own model ship.   In the first of the ShipCraft series to cover non-naval vessels, this meticulously researched and illustrated volume looks at the legendary cruise...

An engaging and vivid read by author and naval historian Brian Lavery, The Conquest of the Ocean tells the 5,000 year history of the remarkable individuals who sailed the seas for trade, to conquer new lands, and to explore the unknown. From the early Polynesian sailors to the first circumnavigations...

""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....

In this remarkable book, now reissued in paperback, Brian Lavery examines every aspect of the Royal Navy, both ashore and at sea, during the Second World War, and casts a lucid eye over the strengths and weaknesses of an organisation that was put under acute strain during the period, yet rose to the...

A key naval action that confirmed British control of the Indian Ocean and its rich trade at a crucial point in the Napoleonic Wars. The battle of Pulo Aor is today rather overshadowed by the contemporary victories of Nelson in European waters, but in its day it was every bit as famous as Trafalgar,...

Getting afloat need not be difficult or expensive if you were to build your own boat. Most of the boats described here are suitable for beginners, and are small and light enough to be carried on a car roof rack. They can be taken to the sea, river, canal or lake; they are cheap and easy to build....

As chronicled in Silent Victory, Clay Blair’s monumental history of United States submarine operations in World War II, the submarine war against Japan was a relatively little known war-within-a-war. It was waged by an initially small but expanding force of boats that eventually made more than 1,400...

The bleak, volcanic island of Ascension, 800 miles from its nearest neighbour St Helena, was described by a Victorian naval officer as ‘one of the strangest places on the face of the earth’. It is still exceedingly odd. Uninhabited when it was taken over by the British in 1815, it was an almost...

First published in 1921, With the Battle Cruisers is a very personal, focused study of naval life during wartime as it unfolded for Young.

A review of "The Founder of the American Navy." John Paul Jones (born John Paul; July 6, 1747 – July 18, 1792) was the United States' first well-known naval commander in the American Revolutionary War. He made many friends and enemies—who accused him of piracy—among America's...

The War of 1812-1815 was a bloody confrontation that tore through the American frontier, the British colonies of Upper and Lower Canada, and parts of the Atlantic coast and the Gulf of Mexico. The conflict saw British, American, and First Nations' forces clash, and in the process, shape the future...

In late 2008, piracy around the Horn of Africa escalated dramatically, threatening the passage of international merchant ships through a critical waterway. Not only were ships carrying goods to North America and Europe affected, but also vessels entrusted with food aid for a Somali population suffering...