Product Description

At the end of the Civil War the US Navy was the most technologically advanced navy in the world, but after the war this spirit of innovation faded and America's naval might dwindled. However, in the 1880s a "New Navy" was born and at the forefront of its fleet were the mighty cruisers. Lawrence Burr details how it was these cruisers that allowed America to once again display its power on the world's oceans. Exploring how the birth of this "Steel Navy" required the development of new shipbuilding, motive power, ordnance, and armour-plate production capability, he details the design and development of these ships.

Intricate colour artwork illuminates the technicalities of the design, especially their internal workings through a cutaway of the USS Olympia, which has been restored and is now on public display. This title also places these technological advances in context, through vivid accounts of how US cruisers were fundamental to the Spanish-American War of 1898, destroying the Spanish fleet at the battles of Manila Bay and Santiago. It was their performance at these engagements that marked the emergence of the US Navy as a major naval power, and America as a world power.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #317345 in Books
• Published on: 2008-06-17
• Released on: 2008-06-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 48 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781846032677
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
"These short histories provide the salient details of the individual ships - noting especially the improvements made over their predecessors - without a reader having to acquire a large, expensive "encyclopedia" of American cruiser history. Each section is extremely well illustrated, with photographs as well as lavishly detailed, illustrated, original artworks." -J. Graeme Arbuckle, The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord (Sept 2009)

"In addition to the superb period photographs of these vessels, there is the artwork of Ian Palmer and John White to further enhance the experience of reading this book. It makes for a well rounded publication and a book that I can most highly recommend to you."- Scott Van Aken, modelingmadness.com (June 2008)


"Overall, a very valuable point of reference for the ship modeler, researcher, or student interested in the steel navy cruiser era. Highly recommended from this modelers point of view!" - Mark R. Smith, Model Shipwrights

About the Author
Lawrence Burr has had a life long passion for naval history. He was recently the British specialist on a Channel 4 documentary on Jutland. He has also been part of a team who has conducted underwater explorations of the Battlecruiser wrecks. The author lives in Palm Harbor, FL.

Customer Reviews

One of the Better Volumes in the New Vanguard series
The description of the transformational growth of the U.S. Navy from a backward, inward-looking coastal defense force to a true blue-water navy lies at the heart of Lawrence Burr's US Cruisers 1883-1904, which is 143 in Osprey's New Vanguard Series. This is a superb volume in the series, which not only delivers a great deal of information in a small space, but offers a very high level of graphic appeal. Overall, a well-put together volume that belongs on the bookshelf of anyone interested in 19th Century navies.

The volume begins with the order of three cruisers for the U.S. Navy in 1883, which the author notes as a watershed change in U.S. Naval policy toward a fleet capable of global operations. Gradually, the U.S. fleet shifted from a strategy of commerce raiding to a fleet capable of sea control, for which the new cruisers were at the forefront. Each class of U.S. cruiser ordered between 1883 and 1904 is described in some detail an further technical details are provided at the end of the volume. The volume is supplemented by superb color graphics and some very nice B/W photos. Overall, this is one of the better volumes in the New Vanguard series.

Very Nice Package
Nicely put together overview of a very neglected area of naval design and development. This volume also contains a useful appendix which has the book's only obvious technical error: when referring to gun calibers, the author (or perhaps an ill-informed and over-zealous editor) includes a decimal point were none should go. An 8in/51 caliber gun has a barrel length 51 times the 8 inch bore. The book has it written "8in/.51 caliber" which would mean the barrel is 4 inches long. This error should be corrected in any future printings.

With some pretty amazing photographs.
I had just finished writing a comment about the fact that no "four-funnelled" ship (and that includes Destroyers and Cruisers in addition to those which were similar to the Titanic) has been preserved - anywhere in the world, when I picked up a copy of this book. Whilst not a four-stacker, I learned that the USS Olympia is moored at Penn's Landing and still retains the colour scheme she wore when making her triumphal arrival at New York in 1899. Well done America, we in Europe have no such relics from that particular era of warships. Furthermore, according to this book the USS Olympia is undergoing serious refurbishment - so, if you can, why not make the visit and put a dollar in the box! And if you can't, pick another ship like the USS Intrepid in New York (I visited her in 1984) or one of any which is close to where you live...

This book is another in a series where the publisher concentrates on a relatively small number of specific vessels - in this case US Cruisers from 1883 to 1904, and then covers those ships in the greatest possible detail. Limited to just 48 pages, the amount of information is very impressive comprising; High quality artwork and photography in addition to all the facts, figures, dimensions and detail one expects from any comprehensive coverage.

Throughout my 30+ years of studying the various ships of different nations I have often recognised some pictures which occasionally re-appear in different works and even a very small number which do so quite frequently. Whilst my knowledge of US ships may not be as great as those of the UK, it says much for this book that I did not recognise one single photograph from elsewhere and learned a great deal more from the content that was expected from a work of this size.

Once again, therefore, we have an item of significant value to the serious historian whilst also being of general interest to anyone with a passions for ships. This book will also provide much of the data required for the serious modeller. Furthermore, unlike many of the larger reference works on warships, this is a book you can (and will!) read.

Perhaps of more interest to the US market (though not necessarily so), I note that this particular book lists 9 further works from these publishers about US vessels. These include; Confederate Ironclads, Union Monitors, Mississippi River Gunboats (conjuring up images of people from New Orleans going to war on the Natchez!), Union River Ironclads, Confederate Raiders and so forth. If the content of each of those is one a par with the two books from this series I have studied up to now, the reader will not be disappointed.

NM