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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
This is "essential" research material., 25 Jan 2002
By A Customer
It is a regrettable fact that almost none of the ships from the early to mid 20th Century have been preserved. Apart from a few notable exceptions, from the mightiest Cruise Liners to the lowliest Tramp Steamers, they are all gone forever. Roger Jordan's work is, therefore, a valuable source of reference into those ships that were operating as part of the world's merchant fleets at the outbreak of WW2 and it is fascinating to see how each vessel fared. A scholarly piece of work, this book will become the definitive work on this subject. This is a hardback book measuring approx. 12" x 8½" containing some 630 pages of detail and information. Beginning with notes explaining the many abbreviations used - including 6½ pages dedicated to the shipbuilders, we then find individual ships listed by country and shipping company in alphabetical order. Over 6,000 ships are described with brief details of; Name, type of machinery, number of screws, passenger-carrying capability, year built, name of builder(s), tonnage and dimensions. Then we come to the section marked "Losses" - with separate lists for losses through; Marine hazard, war causes, Spanish civil war, vessels scuttled, vessels scuttled post-war with surplus war materials, vessels lost post-war due to mines and those that underwent name-changes. Finally, there is the ever-important index - a straightforward list of all the ships within the book and a reference to the pages where each may be found. With every second or third page containing a small selection of good quality b&w photographs of some of these historic vessels - and in many cases a particularly interesting biography of the ship in question, it is easy to see why this book should be regarded as a comprehensive and definitive work by Roger Jordan and Chatham Publishing. I congratulate them on a job well done. Whilst I did find one small error (picky, picky) - again the Rosalie Moller (my favourite Red Sea dive) is listed as raised and broken up after the war, this I can forgive because this error has already appeared in previous authoritative books. Does make me wonder which ship was actually raised though.
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