They capture our imaginations. They
majestically sail across oceans. They play a key
role in Britain’s defense of the realm. Yet we tend
to think of these wooden walls as if they spring
from an idea to fully built ships. The truth is far
different and, although they may not measure up to
today’s technology, these fighting vessels are the
most technologically advanced of their day. This
book delves into what it takes to build a ship from
the seedling of an oak tree to the ideal warship
that leads to an island nation’s supremacy upon the
seas.
The backbone of the Royal Navy sprang from a
captured Spanish ship, originally built by French
shipwrights in 1740. This man-of-war was superior to
all existing vessels in the English fleet, so the
Admiralty decided to base future warships on her
design. One of the two-deck, seventy-four-gun
vessels to be built was HMS Thunderer, whose
keel was laid in 1756 at Woolwich, the first royal
dockyard. It took four years of construction before
her launch in the middle of the Seven Years’ War. At
the dawn of the next century, 139 out of 800 ships
were seventy-fours.
But this is far more than just a book about
ship construction and the Royal Navy. It also shines
a light on Britain’s shipping industry, the timber
trade, the elements needed to build ships, the
dockyards where they were built, and the people
needed to turn designs into finished products. Ten
chapters and an epilogue comprise this volume,
beginning with “The Origins of the 74” and
concluding with a recap of Thunderer’s
career from her launch to her loss in 1780.
Dodds is both a
shipwright and an artist, whose black and white
drawings provide readers with a clear understanding of
each facet along the way. Moore sails yachts and
writes books about ships. Their expertise shines
through, turning what might be a ho-hum dry treatise
on shipbuilding into a fascinating and
easy-to-understand narrative. Originally published in
1984, this new edition is beautifully rendered and
well worth the price. There are so many details
presented that even those familiar with ship
construction will discover new tidbits of information,
while those with little understanding of the industry
will come away with a deeper appreciation of what it
took to build one wooden fighting ship out of more
than 3,400 oak trees.
Review Copyrighted ©2022 Cindy Vallar
Pirates and
Privateers
