Customer Reviews

Black Night Off Finisterre: The Tragic Tale of an Early British Ironclad

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I'm not sorry I bought this book, although it does have its weak spots. Basically this volume pulls together material from a small set of 19th century sources and presents the modern reader with a full set of information about the loss of HMS Captain and the controversy surrounding the reason for the loss - certainly a very specialized subject. This obscure event is important because historically the construction of wooden warships had been largely a matter of following time-honored rules of thumb, but with the advent of iron warships and new types of armament in the 1860s, it was not fully appreciated how these rules needed to be changed to avoid tragedies such as that described in this book. That the design of the Captain was fatally flawed due to the lack of understanding of technology changes at the time is a case perhaps similar to that of the British Comet airliner, which failed because its design occurred during a time of significant technology change (to pressurized jets), but its designers failed to realize fully the consequences of that change.

Besides filling in this little piece of naval history, another good part of the book was the author's semi-technical explanation of some of the basics of naval architecture, such as metacentric height and what it means in terms of a ship's stability and suitability as a gun platform. I've never come across a book which described this so well.

Apart from this, the book had its lesser moments as well. I suspect that these all derive from the author's attempt to fill a certain number of pages with material related to the main subject (because a 50-page book would have been a waste of time). The lengthy passages recounting or quoting from the court martial and exchanges of official communication following the loss are difficult to plow through, especially since they are written in the stilted and convoluted version of English used by upper-class Britons of the 19th century. And I suspect that the complaints voiced by another reviewer also are a result of the author's desire to fill pages, while almost entirely relying upon source material published over a century ago.

I know more now that before I read the book, so in the end, it was a worthwhile read for me.

The book seems at first glance well researched, and it reads well, although the writing style seems a tad tabloidish. I was quite impressed, and would have given this 5 stars, but for for two sections in the chapter, "Why Didn't They Ask Kernan?". This chapter almost seems to be trying to make a mountainous mystery out of a very small puzzle (how did the ship's boat float away so readily?), as if trying to make a big headline to attract more passersby. Then the coup de grace -- he throws in some psychic premonitions, taken with as much gullibility as the rest of the book demands hard evidence, even going so far as to claim that a few kinfolk back in England were disturbed in their sleep that very night. Out of 470 or so crew, this is hardly amazing, and the lack of anything more than second or third hand story telling is in stark contrast to the rest of the book.

I began to read with a much more critical eye after that. I have no doubt as to his general conclusions being correct, but I wonder how much of his evidence is hand picked out of context merely to support a conclusion reached before he began his book.

I still recommend reading this book, but I would suggest from a library before buying. It's not the kind of book I will go back to for good analysis, but only for the odd facts.