Customer Reviews

The Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War, 1625-1860

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The author is (I believe) the curator of the ship model collection in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. Having spent his life studying these contemporary models, he is in an ideal position to write the definitive book on the subject. Every mast, spar, rope, block, tackle, sail, and virtually every knot is described in detail. How practices changed and developed over time is covered comprehensively. Diagrams are first rate.

The language is technical and terse and some knowledge of the subject is assumed, as terms are not explained for the layman. However, this is not a book that a layman would buy for a good bedtime read. But a bedtime read it is not. It is a reference book for someone who needs to have in-depth information on the subject, and in this respect it is superb.

On the down side, it deals only with British practice, and only with square-rigged ships, but then that is the remit of the title.

I used this book as the main reference for rigging my model of HMS Unicorn of 1745, and I beleive that the rigging is now as acurate as I could reasonably make it and far better than the original kit instructions would have allowed.

While this contains almost everything that one could possibly want to know about rigging a British Man-o-war, it is not well- presented. Understandably there is a lot of jargon, that is not my quibble, it is the way things are presented that drags the quality down. Some sections are very well done, but then there are others with tiny little drawings that are frankly confusing. Most books I have seen adopt the convention of bows to right, stern to left, but this book follows no convention, which confuses one at times.
Blocks are well described, but the sizing of them is a mystery - a table relating the size of sheet or line to the overall size of block could have been easily done and made a world of difference.
In particular, the last section on belaying could have been done so much better... There are already plan views of the various rates of vessels, but the descriptions are not even paragraphed; whereas there could have been callouts for each pin or fiferail to make it quickly apparent which line goes where.
The same goes for the appendices on sizing spars, masts etc; App1 is a jumble of words with no attempts at bullets; App2 is tabulated, but difficult to interpret easily, (the axes should be swapped,IMHO).

This is an invaluable reference, but better editing would have made it a whole lot more user-friendly and readable. ***

There are curently three books circulating, which describe historical sailing ship construction from the last four hundred years. Others deal with arming/fitting and construction, this volume comprehensively documents discrete design and construction of Masts & Rigging. Easy to understand, this is the standard contemporary reference for anyone involved with historical research and/or modeling.

A book that is highly technical with ample illustration, and discussion, of the evolution of various methods of rigging a ship of war. As a reference tool it is a must for anyone wanting to be as accurate as possibe when rigging a model. I have recently started building model ships and have found that some kit models do not show belaying points, sequence for attachment of standing and running rigging or clear indications of the correct block to use. This book helps fill that gap, but it also gives the reader a good idea of how much more there is to know to be really good at this hobby.

This book is the definitive one for rigging model ships of this period - great diagrams support a very easy to understand text that explains virtually every rope in the ship.

The author also explains the changes made over two centuries of ship building, with further diagrams illustrating those changes.

A "Must Have" for any serious ship modeller of this period of British Warships.

The service from Amazon was exceptional - this is the second time I have bought a book through them, the first over the Christmas break and this one during Easter. Both times the book arrived within 12 days - one from UK, the other from USA ... both shipped to Australia. You can't ask for better than that!

Danny

I found this book very well layout out and very intersting. I have taken up Ship Model making and I found this book very helful to me.

This is an excellent book in both quality illustration and clear writing. If you have an interest in where all the ropes (lines) went or there purpose, this will answer.
This is an excellent book describing a bygone skill.

This is it.

I have now read through twice and although it is not necessarily your average bed side read I never find my copy to far away. The detail that can be modeled because of this book is outstanding, not to mention the history printed on every page. If you have an interest in tall ships, or ship modeling this is a must have book.

I have bough several books on this subject and they were all recommended by master ship builders from around the world and they are what you need if your planning to scratch build a model ship,historian or just interested in sailing ships