The Fighting Ship

How have sea battles been fought throughout the centuries, where and by whom, and why? From 480 B.C., when the Greeks fought the Persians at the Battle of Salamis, to the saga of the Falklands in 1982, The Fighting Ship, with its superbly imaginative text and detailed illustrations, answers these questions and many more. In the main part of the book crucial sea engagements are described through the eyes of one of the combatants -- we read, for example, of the paymaster on board the USS Monitor in 1862, on her way to do battle with the CSS Merrimack in Chesapeake Bay and a young sailor's experience of the Spanish Armada . Shorter entries on subjects like navigation, aircraft at sea and surgery at sea, and descriptions of ships and weaponry give an added perspective.