Customer Reviews

Battleship Texas (Centennial Series of the Association of Former Students Texas A & M University)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Battleship Texas, now a museum, is a great attraction for tourists to the San Jacinto Monument and Battlegrounds near Houston, Texas.

Normal tourists wander through the ship, shoot a few pictures and leave.

Hugh Power, who lives on Galveston Island nearby, fell in love with the ship, its history and photo opportunity. He spent, to my knowledge, 3 years photographing every nook and cranny of the Battleship.

He took pictures morning and evening, at noon, with and without flash, from this angle and that. He spent hours in his darkroom developing the pictures, experimenting with different exposures and using all the tricks in the trade to create black & white art.

The effort was well worth it. The book is superb, a delight to both, the lover of good photography and ships.

I just bought this as a gift for my father. He lives in the Houston area and we have been on the hard hat tours of the USS Texas twice in the last 2 years. The boat is an awesome collection of history and engineering feats and this book makes a nice addition to the memories of our visits. The pictures are all black and white, and a little grainy. However, there are many old wartime photos that i have never seen, even when touring the ship, that are in this book. And the text is lacking a bit, but still gives a nice overall view of the ship. There are individual sections of the ship with pictures of each section they are writing about (ex:AA guns, officers wardroom, helm station, etc..). Some of the text for each section is brief, but still gives enough detailed info to make it interesting.

Overall, a good book if you have ever visited the Texas. If you haven't been on board the ship, you need to make an effort to go. Especially the hard hat tour which gives you an inside look at the workings of the ship you will never see on the regular tours like the stearing gear room or the actual boilers which are still an engineering marvel from the early 1900's. And all of the staff on board know more about the ship than you could ever imagine. Except for this little cable system tucked up on a wall in the emergency steering room. No one on board has been able to figure that one out.....

But still, a worthwhile trip. And this book like i said makes a great addition to the memories of being on board.

The reason to buy this book is the excelent photographs of the details of the ship. As a B&W picture book, it is excelent.

The text is generally weak with a number of technical errors. The author comes across as a fawning admirer rather an expert.

The book could have been much improved with more complete diagrams of the ship. (Has plans but not of the superstructure or lower decks.)

I am an illustrator and I am working on a painting of the USS Texas as it looked in 1914. I ordered this book, hoping for some good detailed photos... well they aren't in this book. Other wise, the text contains many interesting facts and details of the ship.

This publication will give you facts about one of the greatest battleships ever. The plates are excellent and will move you and instill in you the effort put forth by so many sailors that served bravely on her!

A fabulous and interesting book about a fascinating part of history. Much of the artistry is actually in the pictures, diagrams, and text themselves.

Mr. Powers actually got some of the original Navy blueprints from the ship's construction, and this was the source of the drawings in the book. Occasional compromises were made in the amount of detail the diagrams offer due to space constraints.

Nonetheless this is a beautiful and fascinating way to learn more about this historic ship.