The World's Worst Warships: The Failures and Repercussions of Naval Design and Construction, 1860 to the present day [Hardcover]

Antony Preston (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2002

A serious study of the reasons why some warships have achieved bad reputations. It covers the period from 1860 to the present day, and looks at a wide range of nationalities and ship-types. Some examples are the Russian Popoffkas; the French battleship 'Brennus'; and the British vessel 'Captain'.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Written by two of Britain's finest warship experts, the book covers a wide range of experimental, badly designed or just disastrous ship types from all national ties from 1860 to present day.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Conway Maritime; First Edition edition (February 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0851777546
• ISBN-13: 978-0851777542
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 7.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #919,597 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A perspective sure to touch off debates (and worth it!), March 28, 2005

By 

Andrew S. Rogers (Stamford, Connecticut) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The World's Worst Warships: The Failures and Repercussions of Naval Design and Construction, 1860 to the present day (Hardcover)

As celebrated author Antony Preston notes in his introduction, the question of warship design can easily sound like a boring backwater of naval history. This is especially true once it becomes clear that this book isn't like those "world's strangest airplanes" programs that sometimes show up on TV, with whimsical designs being "flown" off ramps to drop straight into the sea.

But this book is actually quite interesting, and filled with Important Lessons for people interested in learning them. The failures of these "world's worst warships" aren't due solely to the shortsightedness of naval architects or the incompetence of shipbuilders. Far more destructive, in fact, are wrongheaded admirals, penny-pinching politicians, pushy civilians with connections, and the recurrent danger of "fighting the last war." Though many of the ship designs listed here could be considered honest-but-failed experiments in new ideas, quite a few of them qualify as among the "world's worst" because of their designers' or champions' refusal to learn the lessons that should have already been apparent to them.

I can easily imagine this book touching off among naval officers and historians the kinds of impassioned debates that lists of All-Century football teams do among sports fans. Do famous names like "Bismarck," "Yamato," or the American "four-stacker" destroyers of the mid-War era really belong among the world's worst? Preston makes a strong -- well-sourced, well-argued, and even entertaining -- case that they do. What do you think?

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating selection of ships., January 25, 2005

By 

Ned Middleton (British professional underwater photo-journalist & author) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The World's Worst Warships: The Failures and Repercussions of Naval Design and Construction, 1860 to the present day (Hardcover)

Before settling down to read this book, I began by glancing through the pages to see what sort of warship might be regarded as the world's worst. The inclusion of the "K" class submarine did not surprise me but the Yamato, Graf Spee and Hood - I thought these were the outstanding Battleships of their day. Then, having read the narrative for each vessel, it became quite clear why they are included.

"The World's Worst Warships" is a hard-back book measuring 10" x 8" containing almost 200 pages of detailed information on a carefully chosen selection of warship types. Commencing with the Monitors of the American Civil War, the Author brings us through his book - chapter-by-chapter and development-by-development, as this particular type of war machine evolves and improves. Each chapter becomes a fascinating read and the book is well illustrated with a generous selection of line drawings and historic photographs. Incidentally, all illustrations are courtesy of "Chrysalis Images." Chrysalis Books are the parent publishing company and I suspect many readers will find some of the images to be new and previously unpublished.

At the beginning of the book, it is very easy for the reader to mock the early efforts of those building the very first iron-clads - the benefits of hindsight and all that. Later on, however, we can only stand in awe as we learn of the political thinking and sheer dogmatism that surrounded the design of this and the building of that. To think that the one country which truly recognised the value of the Aircraft Carrier right at the outbreak of WW2 would also insist on building 2 Yamato class Battleships - the construction of which almost bankrupted the nation and also even deprived the country's fishermen of their nets. It's all in there.

This is a work of reference to interest ship's historians the world over. I also suspect it will be much sought after by Scuba Divers who look for the reasons why this wreck or that wreck is where it is today.

NM

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What does the Circular Russian Ironclad and the Bismarck have in common?, June 15, 2011

By 

Wulfstan "wulfstan" (San Jose, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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They are both listed here as one of "The Worlds Worst Warships". Yes, even though many such obvious losers as the "Russian Popoffkas; the French battleship Brennus; the British vessels Captain, Sheffield, and Invincible; the U.S. monitor Katahdin and Dynamite Ship Vesuvius; and the Japanese light cruiser Mogami" are listed, so are such battleships as the Yamato and the Bismarck. Surprised? You think those were among the greatest Warships of all time?

Well, read this interesting and provocative book, then you might agree that they were amoung "The Worst"- or at least have some reasons to doubt the conventional wisdom on those dreadnoughts.

This book mostly covers WWI through WWII, with a couple ships before and after.