Customer Reviews

The First Destroyers (Chatham Shipshape Series)

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The first thing to point out about this work is how narrow the focus is. The transition from torpedo "boat" to the destroyer class of warship in the Royal Navy is the subject. References to development outside England are only to contextualize the main subject. What is remarkable about this book is the way extensive quotations from contemporary documents and reproduction of original plans and drawings take one into the period. After a read of this book, I found myself in the late Victorian - Edwardian period. Well, not actually... but the thought and speech patterns did tend to stick with me a bit.

Very clear from the text is the relatively unsatisfactory nature of these transistional weapons systems. They sound like ghastly seaboats, imposing stresses on personnel that would violate the Geneva Conventions on treatment of prisoners. No doubt the sailors and their officers were tough and hardened in a way we do not imagine men of our era to be but the effects of repetitive motions, extreme temperatures, and limited rest on the physical and mental combat effectiveness of human beings are an objective reality. In addition, the limited range and primitive fire control systems meant that to deliver any ordnance against an enemy, suicidally short ranges to heavily armed warships would result. It is a good thing for the crews of these craft that no war actually took place while they were in first line service.

Of further interest is the insight into procurement and development contracts between the Royal Navy and private yards of the era, shown by the extensive documentary quotations referred to above. The issues remain the same now as then and only the people have changed, not the positions their roles and responsibilities put them in.

In summary this is probably not a book for the general browser into naval history but for someone with a specific research topic or need in mind.

David Lyon writes an interesting book, and reproduces about as much as is possible on the elements in the rapid development of the English TBD. The gaps in this work are caused by the gaps in the Royal Navy records, not by David Lyon. I look forward to successors to this work.