First Rate: The Greatest Warships in the Age of Sail

by Rif Winfield

In the sailing era First Rates were the largest, most powerful and most costly ships to construct, maintain and operate. Built to the highest standards, they were lavishly decorated and given carefully considered names that reflected the pride and prestige of their country. They were the very embodiment of national power, and as such drew the attention of artists, engravers and printmakers. This means that virtually every British First Rate from the Prince Royal of 1610 to the end of sail is represented by an array of paintings, drawings, models or plans.This book is a celebration of these magnificent ships, combining an authoritative history of their development with reproductions of many of the best (and least familiar) images of the ships, chosen for their accuracy, detail and sheer visual power in an extra-large format that does full justice to the images themselves. It also includes comparative data on similar vessels in other navies, so it is a book that everyone with an interest in wooden warships will find both enlightening and a pleasure to peruse.

Genres: Nonfiction

309 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Michal · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not like this book. What I was hoping to get out of it was a layperson's introduction to the Age of Sail and a comprehensible description of the ships and their evolution. Instead, this book follows the following formula: ship named X cost that much, the captain was called so and so, it had [various types of guns], and its ultimate fate was Y. Next!

For that reason I can't see the forest for the trees here. I'm not sure if I got anything out of this book, but I recognise that it might be more useful to aficionados.