Customer Reviews

The Chinese Steam Navy 1862-1945

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There isn't much else currently available on this niche in naval history other than journal articles. The text is accessible to casual readers, with plenty of helpful photos and diagrams.

If you're interested in 19th century naval development, and the hardware behind the Sino-Japanese War in particular, this will make a useful addition to your library.

The author of this book has done a great job - he has taken a little known niche of naval history and written a concise work in the subject which is straightforward enough for the layman and also laden with enough line drawings and photographs to get the more serious student of naval warfare on board.

The development of the Chinese navy post the replacement of sail with steam is discussed in a chronological and logical manner, the thinking of the admiralty is looked at briefly and some of the issues faced by the service are touched upon. This work is especially useful for those interested in the weaponry of the Sino-Japanese war of 1894-5 and the book would be very useful for any naval wargamer interested in this period. The waxing and waning of the fleet during the last days of the Emperor are looked at as is the situation facing the Chinese in relation to their deteriorating relations with Japan. The book ends with the close of WW2 and as an aside there is also a chapter on the Chinese customs service who maintained a fleet of vessels as well.

The book is not a massive tome but it gets the job done. It is well set out with nice typeface my hardcover copy has served me well.

P.S - at the time I'm writing this review there is a company called Navwar who sell 1/3000 scale miniature warships and as part of their range they have packs of Chinese vessels of varying dates - pretty much all the important vessels are covered in these packs and any naval wargamer thinking of purchasing those packs should seriously consider getting themselves a copy of this book.