Quote:
Originally Posted by Sailor Steve
I have the book, and value it as a reference, but I can't argue with your complaints. Dr Friedman is a great naval historian, but all of his books suffer in that department. His first British Destroyers book is just as good, and just as bad.
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I actually used a "cheat sheet" when I'm reading his
U.S. Battleships which lists all the ship's names, their class, and hull number.
BCOTVE covers such a wide spread of naval history, and so many different types of ships, it should have included a fold-out chronological "family tree" of British cruiser designs between 1850 and 1905. Maybe I'm just losing my reader comprehension mojo, but it kind of bugs me that classic naval references from the 70s like
The Fleet Submarine In The U.S. Navy and
British Battleships of World War Two were a lot easier to read. Granted, the production values weren't as nice as newer books, but you don't feel like you need the Cliff Notes books to follow along!