Warship Boneyards [Paperback]

I'll get right to the point. Considering it's stated objective - the story of "Warship Boneyards" - Bonner's book fails to deliver. Over the years, I've become familiar with Kit Bonner's work, in various publications. But here he seems to concentrate on the active duty history of the U.S. Navy, and that's not why I bought a book called "Warship Boneyards". The text is almost exclusively the standard history of the Navy, that's been retold many times before; from the Honda Point disaster, to Pearl Harbor, to the Cold War. There is little (if any) text on the operational history of the inactive fleets, especially not in the early chapters. The only time these facilities seem to be mentioned at all is as a lead-in, or follow-up, to the battle history. It's the inactive fleets I want to know about: how they began, how they work, what they look like, etc. Far much more space should have been devoted to that, instead of the active duty stuff. Nonetheless, many of the photos are wonderful, and it is for that reason I give this book a 3-star rating. But even here, Bonner fails to live up to expectations. (More in a minute.) Some favorite photos to look for: page 24, CGN-9 Long Beach with three other CGNs in 1998, all scrapped down to the main deck; page 71, a line of Victory in 1999, with Sioux Falls ictory in front; page 84, Glomar Explorer in 1997; and page 120, submarine Barbel in 1999 with her sail removed. But Bonner's use of photographs suffers from the same problem as the text - there's too much of ships on active duty. For example, from page 51 to 68, there is a total of 17 individual photos - and only three have anything at all to do with boneyards. On page 59 is the tug Hoga in 1999, page 66 shows a "mass grave" for destroyers in Philadelphia in 1946, and page 67 shows two battleships at a New Jersey scrapyard in 1947. And sometimes, even when the author does show a photo from the reserve fleets, it's completely unusable. On page 71 is a photo of the Suisun Bay reserve fleet after World War 2. The entire fleet is shown in a photo barely 2-1/2 by 3-3/4 inches. What good is a great photo like that if you can't see anything? Identical problems you can see with the photos on pages 49 and 50 - they're too small to illustrate anything. Remember that photo of the Long Beach I mentioned? A real nice picture, but the Long Beach is on the right side of the photo, directly up against the book's spine. As a result, you can't see this unique ship clearly without completely bending the spine open. In summary, it's really not a bad book. But it fails to do what it's cover advertises. For me, I wanted a detailed, thoroughly illustrated history of the Navy's reserve fleets. And I don't think I got that.

Obviously the authors have an affinity for the topic, and it was well researched. One aspect in particular that stands out is the chapter format and the matter in which warship deactivation was done in conjunction with a well written explanation of at the time current events. A must for naval enthusiasts.

I would agree with the above review. The author really has a love of the navy, and in it's origins and history. This was the first in a collection that I have come to own. I would HIGHLY recommend this to anyone interested in Naval history and in the mighty fleets that served, not only the U.S. but many other countries. The book is well organized and beautifuly laid-out. The photographs are first-rate, I found myself comparing them to photos I've taken all over the U.S. A recommendation to any history buff or anyone intersted in the process of Naval preservation.