The Price of Admiralty

The aim of John Keegan's new book is to apply to warfare at sea the same technique he employed in his classic work The Face of Battle, so to discover how men have fought at sea, and to explore the nature of the indvidual's experience of combat over changing times. The conflicts Keegan has chosen begin with Trafalgar in 1805, a classic and well-documented example of ship-of-the-line battle. Next he turns to Jutland, posing very different problems for commander and seaman alike. Then to the Battle of Midway, where he examines the particular role played by the aircraft carrier, with its 'two societies', that of the ship itself and that of the 'air group' elite which supplied its raison d'etre. Finally he examines the Battle of the Atlantic, in which he recreates a picture both of everyday life and operational routine within the boat that saw the last great technical transformation of naval operations, and ultimately the most significant - the submarine. The book concludes with a survey of how naval warfare may be expected to evolve in the future - with surface navies disappearing altogether.