Anatomy of the Flower-Class Corvette: Review with Pics

[Subnuts]

I received this book on January 27th. I had originally intended to buy the Anatomy book on the Battleship Dreadnought, but alas, it went out of print while it was still "on hold" at Amazon.com. Anyway, here's my review. The scans are of pretty low quality, if only to avoid the copyright police. Enjoy!


I imagine when one thinks of a World War II-era warship, they think of enormous battleships and aircraft carriers. A clumsy adaptation of a 30s whale chaser certainly does not match the sleek and powerful image of a destroyer or heavy cruiser . The British Flower-class corvette (an anti-submarine warship smaller than a frigate) was designed at the onset of World War II as a "stopgap" measure to protect Allied convoys crossing the Atlantic. 225 of this type were built, more than any other warship class in history. They were poorly armed, slow, and miserable to live aboard. Nonetheless, they were excellent seaboats and participated in the sinking of at least 51 enemy submarines.

The subject of this book is the HMCS Agassiz, a Canadian Flower of the "short forecastle" type depicted in Nicholas Monsarrat’s The Cruel Sea. She was laid down in Vancouver in April 1940 and commissioned in January the next year. The Agassiz remained in service until 1945, receiving a major refit in 1943. She was scrapped in 1946.

General Information
The Flower-Class Corvette Agassiz is the 28th book in the Anatomy of the Ship series. It is a 160-page hardcover book divided into three major sections: Introduction, Photographs, and Drawings. The jacket’s reverse side doubles as 1:144 scale plan of the bow, stern, and profile.

The author, John McKay is a Canadian architectural draftsman who has produced three other books in this series, covering the HMS Victory, Bounty, and Pandora.

Book Format
The book begins with a brief 11-page introduction to the design of the Flower-class, touching on subjects such as design evolution, modifications, hull form, and machinery. A 13-page section presents 29 black-and-white photographs, showing overall views of the class and close-ups of the superstructure.

The real meat of the book comes next - the drawings. The next 126 pages, more than three-quarters of the book, contains hundreds of detailed line drawings and schematics of every single deck, frame, bulkhead, and fitting on the ship. The back cover says that there are "more than 350 drawings," but the number is closer to 550 by my count. Literally, almost no bolt goes uncovered.

The Drawings
I’ve always been a sucker for a good set of ship plans. I’ve spent hours scouring the Internet with little luck. When I heard the phrase "anatomy of the ship" I felt a bit incredulous. Anatomy? There’s no way they could show every part of a ship! But McKay comes pretty close, though anyone looking for five-view drawings of the officer’s mess toilet will be disappointed. There’s still plenty here to leave the amateur naval architect entranced for hours.

The first part shows the ship’s general arrangements. There are 1:192 scale plans of the ship’s side, internal profile, and body lines, along with the bow and stern at 1:144 scale. Next are plan views of the four decks and isometric views of the hull lines and exterior arrangement.




Part two covers the internal hull. It opens with a four-page, 1:96 scale centreline cross-section of the ship. Next are isometric views of the superstructure, hull casing, lower deck, and hold. The third section cuts the hull into 28 1:96 scale vertical slices (in nautical jargon, a "transverse section"), one every seven feet.




Part three describes the ship’s internal construction. First up are a series of plans showing the framing for the hull and each deck. Isometric views show the frames, keel, stringers, and other constructional details. Further sections detail the rudder and it’s bearing, the stern framing, and the shell plating.





The ship’s machinery is covered in Part four. It opens with plan and profile views of both levels of the engine and boiler rooms. Equipment such as the main engine, boilers, circulating pump, propeller shaft, and condenser are examined internally and externally in a large number of 1:48 scale plans.




The spars and rigging are detailed in Part five. Part six covers the ship’s fittings, always a sticking point for modelers. 38 different fittings are covered in this chapter, ranging from bollards, ammunition lockers, watertight hatches, and skylights. Smaller details, such as railings, hand pumps, fire buckets, even the voice pipe, are not ignored, and given the same detailed treatment.




Armament is covered in Part seven. The four-inch gun, anti-aircraft machine guns, and depth charge throwers and racks are shown here. Also detailed are the minesweeping gear and "Hedgehog" anti-submarine weapon. The ship’s boat is detailed in-depth in Part eight. The final part provides profile views and 1:192 scale deck plans for the modified Flower-class and the Castle-class corvette, a stretched derivative of the Flower.



In Conclusion
The level of detail presented in these drawings is occasionally unbelievable. The deck plans show every bulkhead and compartment of the ship, right down to the toilets, ladders, and pantry. The four-page cross-section has more than 200 annotations, while the framing plans shows every stringer, girder, and frame, noting the dimension of each beam. The expansion plating plan shows the location of, and the dimensions and thickness of each hull plate. The ship’s engine is shown from six views, showing details as small as stop valves, evaporator coils, and drag links. A cross-section through the galley skylight shows a "3in x 3in x.34 oa coaming bar."

The illustrations are fantastically well-researched and drawn, and represent perhaps the most detailed study of a single mechanical construct I’ve ever seen. If I have one real criticism, it’s that the detail can be a little too much at times. After a couple hours, I was getting a headache from squinting! This is obviously a "niche" title that will appeal to a small group (or as my Mom says "the sort of book that only a person like Daryl would know about!"). It’s an invaluable resource for the modeler and a fascinating title for anyone interested in the technical side of naval history. If the subject grabs you, I highly recommend it. [/img][/b]

Great review, Subnuts! I have the Dreadnought book myself, and it is much the same. Some of the Anatomy books don't have quite the level of detail as Dreadnought, but apparently Flower does.

Dreadnought was done by the great John Roberts, and 3/4 of it consists of highly detailed drawings as well, including everything right down to the ship's boats, 12-pounder guns and even the design of the individual boats! I have joked on more than one occassion that someone with enough money could rebuild the ship just using Mr. Roberts' drawings. Not true, of course, but it feels that way. I'm glad to see Mr. McKay is obviously of the same passion and talent.

Dreadnoght has a section quoting directly from the ships' trials, and contains information on turning radius, power output at different speeds, draft at different displacements and much more. Does Flower contain similar specs? If so, I'd be glad to trade information with you.

Thanks again for a fantastic review.

[Subnuts]

If this book is lacking anything, it's that the introduction is extremely sketchy. It doesn't go into any detail about trial results, displacements, and so on.
As I said, the drawings are fantastic. The scans don't do them justice. And they're far more affordable than buying plan sets online.

I'm still extremely miffed with amazon.com about my Dreadnought experience. My mom ordered the book on December 9th as a Christmas gift. It was supposed to ship in "2 to 3 weeks" then. By Christmas, they expected it to ship by December 31. December 31 passes. Now it's January 15th. Okay, I can wait. Now it's January 15th. There's been a delay, and it might not arrive until March 2nd. Crap, I'll just have to forget about it and be pleasently surprised then. January 20th, I get an e-mail saying they can't get any copies in stock. I was pissed, to say the least! It was my Christmas gift! I reluctantly ordered this one instead, and got in on the 27th.

The Agassiz book is so good I might have to pay full price and wait forever to get Dreadnought second-hand. Or beg the publisher for a remainder. Or pray that it shows up in the bargain racks someday.

Oh well, I'm looking at both the Yamato and HMS Victory books for my next purchase.

I got my copy of Dreadnought through Advanced Book Exchange: www.abebooks.com
They have several copies, the lowest shown being $25.41
http://dogbert.abebooks.com/servlet/...eadnought&x=18

I would also recommend David Lyon's The First Destroyers; but only if you are interested in 1890s Torpedo Boat Destroyers.
http://dogbert.abebooks.com/servlet/...estroyers&x=24
I'm surprised at how cheap this one is-I paid $25 for a new copy a year ago.