"Anatomy of the Ship" Series Review-A-Thon

[Sepp von Ch.]

I own all submarine Anatomy of the Ship books - Type VII, XXI and The submarine alliance and these books are excellent. I wish Anatomy of the Typ IX U-Boat

[Subnuts]

Anatomy of the Ship: The Submarine Alliance
John Lambert
1986

I think it's fair to say we here on Subsim tend to take submarines for granted. We order a new depth, the chief nods and talks to the control room bulkhead, the pump guy turns a few valves, and god willing, the boat levels off within two meters of the ordered depth. However, if one were to peel away the layers of any submarine built since the 1930s, one would find a bewilderingly sophisticated machine whose complexity rivaled a manned spacecraft. Take the Amphion-class, a class of 16 diesel-electric attack submarines built in the UK under the 1943 Emergency War Programme. Among the bewildering array of systems aboard these boats were two massive diesel engines, ten torpedo tubes, 224 lead-acid batteries weighing a half ton each, dozens of ballast, lubricating oil, fuel, and trimming tanks, and high and low-pressure compressed air tanks and lines. Besides that, every corner of these boats were crammed with hand-wheels, valves, and gauges, along with dozens of auxiliary machines.

Up until this title, the "Anatomy of the Ship" series had relied mostly on traditional deck plans and cross-sections, with the occasional perspective view thrown in. Submarines are a different beast, however, and when dealing with a 16-foot wide, 220-foot long metal pipe, John Lambert had to take a different tack. The result is one of the finest books in the series, and a must-own for any serious submarine buff. The introduction describes Alliance's construction, machinery, armament, and post-war refits, accompanied by several tables detailing various particulars of the Amphion-class, including trial results and machinery details. There are 21 photographs in total, showing various 'A' boats from 1945 to the mid 70s, giving a decent idea of the class's evolution through the years.

While The Submarine Alliance includes the same type of General Arrangement drawings found in the rest of the series, they certainly aren't the meat of the book. Instead, this book is packed with hundreds of exploded and perspective-view schematics, depicting the boat's propulsion systems, machinery, and armament in unprecedented detail. The drawings section opens with 12 1/384 scale profile views showing various 'A' boats from 1945 through 1970, showing the evolving appearance of the class's exterior. Section B includes full set of General Arrangement plans, showing the top and side of the boat, plans of each deck, and a longitudinal and nine transverse sections of the hull. This section also includes 1/96 scale midships sections of three different 'A's, a perspective cutaway of a generic 'A', and a set of plans depicting Alliance's appearance after her 1960 refit, along with the layout of her external and internal tanks and their associated fittings. Section 'C', "Casing and Superstructure," features 1/96 scale plans depicting the internal and external arrangement of Auriga's bridge as completed, and Alliance's after her 1961 refit. This section also includes three pages of scrap views showing Alliance in her present condition, focusing on the sail and deck fittings.

Section D, "Internal Arrangements," covers many of the systems required for the everyday operation of a late-war diesel submarine. The first three pages alone depict the arrangement of external and internal tanks, the high and low-pressure air systems, the layout of the bathrooms and water closets, and the auxiliary circulating water and fresh water systems. The control room is detailed in a series of 1/60th scale plans, showing elevations of both sides of the compartment and 12 sections through it, the drawing key noting items as obscure as the "24v DC M/G for radio and radar" and "12in TO vent valve No 3 main tank." The rest of the chapter includes drawings of the anchor gear, forward and after hydroplane arrangements, steering gear, main valves, the snort induction system, both periscopes, and the ACO Mk II projector binnacle, an interesting device which allowed the helmsman in the control room to view a projected image of the compass card.

Section E, "Machinery," focuses on the propulsion systems of the A-class, and is even more detailed than the preceding section. It opens with seven pages of perspective views of the Admiralty-pattern diesels fitted on board six of the A-class, showing the engine framework, air start, lubricating oil, and circulating water systems, cylinder heads, fuel pumps and injectors, engine controls, supercharger, and valve gears. The Vickers diesels fitted on board the remaining "A" boats receive similar treatment, as do the electric motors, batteries, and propeller shafts. The rest of the section covers auxiliary machinery, including evaporators, the air conditioning plant, air compressors, the low pressure blower, ballast pump, and refrigerating plant.

The final section looks at the weapons used by the A-class. It opens with schematics of the boat's internal and external torpedo tubes, showing the arrangements of pipe connections, firing gear, and some of the important torpedo tube fittings. The Mk VIII torpedo is detailed with dimensioned drawings and perspective views of the interior components, such as the main reducing valve, igniter firing gear, and gyro angling gear. The book concludes with views of both types of 4-inch guns used by the A-class, and the famous 20mm Oerlikon anti-aircraft gun.

How would I best describe this book? Obsessive. Fantastically detailed. A labor of love for serious submarine buffs and anyone interested in naval architecture. The Submarine Alliance contains the most detailed technical drawings of a submarine I've ever seen, and it's the most detailed book in this series by far. Finding decent technical data on submarines has always been a frustrating experience - even the Fleet Boat manuals available for free online never really satiated my desire. Despite it's small size, this book is a treasure trove of detail, even if it will only appeal to serious submarine geeks.

My only real complaint lies in the lack of schematics depicting the hull structure, which is paid some lip service in the introduction but is otherwise glossed over. In several instances, items on the plans are pointed to, but the number associated with the drawing key simply isn't there. In one severe example a drawing showing the crankshaft of the Vickers diesel, a key is included but the actual drawing doesn't have any annotations! Those quibbles aside, this is one of my three favorite Anatomies, and it's a real shame that it was never revised and reprinted.

Final rating: 9.25/10

[nikimcbee]

Subnuts, do you have John Lambert's book on the Corvettes?

[Subnuts]

Originally Posted by nikimcbee

Subnuts, do you have John Lambert's book on the Corvettes?

I don't have either one, but I have John McKay's book on the Flower-class corvette Agassiz, which is another one of my favorites in this series.

[Subnuts]

For some reason, I can't shake my writer's block. Well, here's my "brief" review of the Warspite book. I recently scored a "Very Good" copy of the book on the royal yacht Caroline for $40, which is borderline miraculous in my book.

Anatomy of the Ship: The Battleship Warspite
Ross Watton
1986

The Warspite is one ship that needs little introduction. When the Warspite walked into a room, everyone got quiet. When the Warspite bought liquor, it didn't need to show it's ID. When the Warspite...ok, you get the idea. What I personally find amusing, is the fact that ship broke it's table cable on the way to the scrapyard, ran aground, and had to be scrapped in place over a nine year period. After being almost sunk by the Germans half a dozen times, the ship still had some fight left in her!

The Battleship Warspite follows the same basic format as the other steel surface ship anatomies, so no real surprises in that department. The introduction is a little short this time - only eight pages, with a brief timeline of the ship's career and a summary of external alterations. 25 pictures are included, mostly overall views of the ship throughout it's 30 year career, and two nice line-and-wash drawings by Ross Watton.

Except for a side view of the ship in 1917, all of the General Arrangements depict Warspite in her 1942 fit. There are plans of each deck and the double bottom, a section through the center-line, and 13 transverse sections, all at 1/450 scale. The section on hull construction includes overall views of the hull plating and armor arrangement, sections through the bow and stern structure, and details of the bulge structure, double bottom framing, armor belt, and shaft brackets.

The machinery section features plan and side views of the engine and boiler rooms in 1915 and 1937, along with drawings of the steering gear, propeller shaft arrangements, and a boiler. The next section includes drawings of a couple of accommodation spaces as they appeared in 1915, along with the arrangement of a typical Water Closet. The evolving arrangement of the superstructure is the focus of Section E, which depicts a number of deckhouses as they were refitted over the years, including the funnels, forecastle deck, and forward superstructure.

Section F details the evolution of the ship's rig, showing the changing arrangements of the fore and main masts and their tops. Armament is covered in Section G, opening with a number of nicely detailed sectional views of the twin 15-inch turrets and it's breech mechanism, before moving on to the ship's smaller mounts AA guns, and one of the torpedo rooms. The next few chapters cover fire control devices, deck fittings, ground tackle, ship's boats, and the aircraft carried by Warspite over the years.

The Battleship Warspite includes some superbly detailed material, but also suffers from a number of flaws. First, the good stuff. Watton wisely chooses to depict the Warspite as an evolving entity, while many books in this series tend to depict their subject as frozen in time. Some of the drawings are very nicely done, including an actual shell expansion plan (a first for the series!), a plan of a Main Deck crew space detailed down to hose connections and curtains, a view of the forecastle deck in 1915 showing the location of every fitting, and sharp, crisply detailed drawings of the 15-inch gun turrets. Finally, the perspective views of the superstructure are very nicely done.

Unfortunately, this book suffers from the same grapeshot approach that the weaker entries in this series suffer from. Despite being the same length as it's predecessor on the Belfast, it's nowhere near as detailed. General Arrangements are rough looking, and the last 20 pages are almost devoid of drawing keys. It doesn't breathe where it needs a chance to - I've always been most interested in hull structure and machinery, but these sections put together only total 13 pages.

In all fairness, The Battleship Warspite was probably meant to appeal to people building a model of the ship who wanted detailed views of the rigging and superstructure. There's some interesting stuff for naval buffs to chew on, but not much when compared to the titles on the Hood and Alliance, for example. Fortunately, the series would bounce back soon afterwards, and many of the books released over the next few years would be classics. Ross Watton himself would deliver an outstanding title on the Queen Mary in 1989.

Final rating: 6.5/10

[Oberon]

Thanks for the review Subnuts. Great intro, the Warspite certainly was a grand old lady, I think it criminal that she wasn't preserved, but at least she went down fighting.

[Subnuts]

Dug this review out of my archives and edited it a little. Enjoy!

Anatomy of the Ship: The 100-Gun Ship Victory
John McKay
1987

After Brian Lavery's frustratingly inconsistent take on the Bellona in 1985, two new draughtsmen new to the series published volumes on historic
English wooden fighting ships in 1987. The first was by the Canadian architectural draughtsman John McKay, whose four "Anatomies" are probably the most consistently good out of the 38 published titles. His subject was the HMS Victory, Horatio Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar, and the last surviving First Rate fighting ship in the world. The introduction provides some background information on the role of the First-Rate ship in the Royal Navy, and a brief service history and time-line of the ship's career. This section also includes details on the hull construction, general arrangement, armament, fittings, masts, and rigging. 20 photographs are included, most of them from the 1950s and 60s, depicting details of the exterior and interior of the ship undergoing restoration.

The drawings (which I'm assuming are the reason you're thinking of buying the book, unless you read Playboy for the articles) took 3,000 hours to create over a five year period. For General Arrangements, we get side, bow, stern, and sectional views of Victory at 1:192 scale, followed by views of each deck. Section B is devoted to the ship's structure overall views of the hull framing, the arrangement of the keel, and the layout of the inner construction. This part includes detailed plan views of the structure of the stern galleries, the bow, and each deck, along with six perspective views of the hull structure, showing the keel, frames, planking, beams, decks, and finally the completed hull.

Section C has 33 transverse sections through the hull, while section D covers some of the external details, such as the beakhead bulkhead, stern davits, side railings and channels, and the entry port on the middle deck. Section E focuses on deck fittings and opens with views of the fittings around the fore and main masts, before detailing the hawse holes, riding bitts, capstans, anchors, steering gear, stern lanterns, and boats. Section E details the armament, and includes views of six types of guns and their carriages.

Section G covers the masts and yards, and will probably be the most useful section for model builders. Each of the masts and spars are depicted in detailed dimensioned drawings, with numerous plan, profile, and cross-section views of details as small as mast caps, cross-trees, and the driver boom jaws. The final section depicts Victory's rigging. The standing and running rigging each receive a single profile and perspective view each, while the rigging associated with each mast in shown in frontal view, along with a plan showing where each line was belayed (secured). Rounding it out are dimensioned drawings of 19 common rigging blocks, and a "rigging schedule" giving the length and circumference of every major line, and the type and size of the blocks used with it.

The 100-Gun Ship Victory is unfortunately the weakest of McKay's four anatomies, which still puts it above many of the books in the series. His style would evolve over the next six years, and this book's successors would be better detailed, better edited, and more polished. Of course, if you're building a model of the Victory it's a must have (though not the only book you'll want to have), and there's still some wonderfully detailed stuff in here for Age of Sail enthusiasts, such as the detailed plans of the deck structure. Where the book fails are the crude drawings of boats, the unreadable (1/384 scale, seriously?) rigging diagrams, and a relative lack of perspective views.

The biggest problem, however, is the 2010 edition you'll receive if you buy this book through Amazon. The photos look fine, as do about half the plans, but the rest look horrid. It looks like someone went over the drawings with 80-grit sandpaper, xeroxed them, rescanned them, and attempted to fix them up in Photoshop. A lot of fine detail has been lost, such as the wood grain in the cross-section views, and the hull planking in the exterior plans. Many of the drawings look faded, washed out, and in some cases, badly digitized. The plans of the running rigging feature jagged lines due to JPEG compression - simply unacceptable in a book that currently retails for $47.95. In fact, I'd recommend hunting down a 1987 edition of the this book if you want it, despite the presence of some errors that were fixed in later releases. It has to look better than this!

Final rating: 7.75 for the 1987 edition, 5.0 for the 2010 edition.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by nikimcbee

Subnuts, do you have John Lambert's book on the Corvettes?

I'm the weird one here. You guys are into corvettes (don't get me wrong, I like them too), but I treasure things like David Lyons' The First Destroyers, which is a rundown on development of the British TBD from 1893 to 1900, all information coming from the actual first-hand documents (and drawings by John Robers, of course). This also explains why my favorite Anatomy book is Dreadnought.

[TBear]

I have the one on Takao, and it is awsome

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by Subnuts

Anatomy of the Ship: The Submarine Alliance
John Lambert
1986

I think you just earned your Subsim member's paycheck with this one. From the title, I probably have overlooked this in the used book stores. The title does not suggest anything that you wrote.

I guess you can't judge a book by its title?

Thank you for the review and I now want to add this to my library. I too have had disappointments with the "Anatomy" books especially with the submarine ones. They have always been in my "meh" category and worthy only to fill up my library to impress the chicks.

But this one seems really worth hunting down.

For this review, much thanks.

[Oberon]

Just stumbled into this thread, fantastic reviews by the way. I noticed they've done a Warspite one...might have to have a look at this, I have a weakness for the Grand Old Lady.