The SHIP of the LINE set of Vols. 1 & 2

by Brian Lavery

From the back jacket of each “Certain to become the definitive work, this book is a major step forward in the study of the sailing warship. For the first time, the development of the line-of-battle ship is described precisely, in terms of individual ships and classes, highlighting the factors influencing specific changes in design…”

Genres: Naval History, History

Hardcover

First published January 14, 2015

About the author

Brian Lavery is a British naval historian, author, and Curator Emeritus at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.

Reviews

[Jay Simmons · Rating 3 out of 5]

The text contains an amount of information on ships of the line that I had not seen in other publications. You need to have some familiarity with ship construction vocabulary as the author uses many ship construction terms freely without a definition of those terms. The book is Anglo centric. The reason I rated it 3 stars, is although there are many pictures of the ship models, illustrating the aspect being covered in the text, when reading on a Kindle PW, the photos are hard to determine any detail. The book does contain a facility to expand the photo, but that is not sufficient to see the many details that the author is covering in the text. I would recommend reading this on your computer using the Kindle reader designed for your device. I have read several of Lavery’s books and he is one of the premier writers covering the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars.

[Ian Bates · Rating 2 out of 5]

1983/4 edition - Two Volumes. Conway Maritime Press.
Good general background.

[Daniel Cicero · Rating 5 out of 5]

This slim volume aggregates an amazing amount of information about Ships of the Line and the use of models to tell the story of their development is inspired.

Aside from HMS Victory, none of these ships still exist, but the models do and Lavery uses them to track changes in hull design, ornamentation, rigging, gunnery and other design choices designers made. He compares Royal Navy thought and practice to those of other nations. He covers details like ship’s boats and guns along with the higher level decisions about the mix of different types of vessels and how each performed compared to peers in other navies. It’s masterful. I thought I knew this subject well when I started reading, but I learned new things and connected old things in new ways with the help of this book.