Book review Book Review / Look Inside: "THE SAILING FRIGATE, a History in Ship Models" by Robert Gardiner

Uwek

Administrator
Staff member
Administrator
Forum Moderator
Joined
Dec 25, 2017
Messages
30,718
Points
1,238

Location
Vienna, Austria
The Sailing Frigate: A History in Ship Models
by Robert GARDINER
Illustrated from the Collections of the National Maritime Museum

IMG_20631.jpg
  • Paperback: 128 pages
  • Publisher: Naval Institute Press; Reprint edition (March 15, 2016)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 184832295X
  • ISBN-13: 978-1848322950
  • Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 0.5 x 9.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces

Synopsis:

The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich houses the largest collection of scale ship models in the world. Many of the models are official, contemporary artifacts made by the craftsmen of the Royal Navy or the shipbuilders themselves, ranging from the mid-seventeenth century to the present day. As such they represent a three-dimensional archive of unique importance and authority. Treated as historical evidence, they offer more detail than even the best plans, and demonstrate exactly what the ships looked like in a way that even the finest marine painter could not achieve. Now available in paperback, this book tells the story of the evolution of the cruising ship under sail. It includes a large number of model photos all in full-color as well as close-up and detail views. These are captioned in depth, but many are also annotated to focus attention on interesting or unusual features.
Although pictorial in emphasis, The Sailing Frigate weaves the pictures into an authoritative text, producing an unusual and attractive form of technical history. While the series will be of particular interest to ship modelers, all those with an interest in ship design and development will be attracted to the in-depth analysis of these beautifully presented books.

IMG_20961.jpg IMG_20971.jpg


Content:

1: PREHISTORY 1600 - 1689 (page 6 to 13)
Lord Torrington`s Specification
2: GUERRE DE COURSE 1689 - 1713 (page 14 to 23)
Lord Danby`s Maggot
3: THE ESTABLISHMENT ERA 1706 - 1748 (page 24 to 45)
The Frigate about 1720
Development of the Stern in Estabishment Sixth Rates
4: THE "TRUE FRIGATE" 1748 - 1778 (page 46 to 67)
Develoment of the Head
The Frigate about 1760
Structure
5: THE HEAVY FRIGATE 1778 - 1815 (page 68 to 101)
Coppering and Carronades
The Frigate about 1795
Filling in the Waist
Ship´s Boats
Sweeps and Sweep Ports
6: THE LAST GENERATION 1815 - 1850 (page 102 to 125)
The Frigate about 1825
Round and Elliptical Sterns
Inside a Frigate
Postscript, Further Reading

IMG_20981.jpg IMG_20991.jpg


Review:

Robert Gardiner is a respected specialist in the field of naval history; his specific focus has been the history of the frigate, in this field he wrote already several important publications. In this book, Gardiner marries a concise text not with ship's plans and drafts, but with stunning photographs of ship models from the collections of the National Maritime Museum in London.
It is an important contribution to the literature on this topic, mainly because it illustrates many models that have not been examined closely and which the NMM has not chosen to place on public display. Every photograph is marked with a special code (you can see this in the photos) with which you can find on the website of the NMM further descriptions and all photos of the NMM related to this model. A very useful service I think.
On a huge number of textual descriptions of details by Gardiner you can find direct line to the shown model, so you understand immediately the meaning of the specialist information -> great idea and very helpful.

Another opinion which I found and which is explaining very well the quality of the book:
Seeing is believing! To understand the development of ships over the centuries you should compare models, and the author should assist you by pointing out the differences not so obvious to a beginner's eye. This Mr. Gardiner does, and he does it well. He clearly knows his models, and he explains where there are some uncertainties, such as the presence or absence of sweep ports on the model versus the ship itself. The book is beautifully, richly, amply illustrated, and it is very reasonably priced. Excellent!

Highly recommended for the interested modeler, interesting and understandable for the beginner, a very nice and informative book for the more experienced.
Great resource to see some special models of the NMM.

Realy worth the money, and by the way, due to the fact, that it is a paperback not realy expensive -> Buy It !


IMG_21001.jpg IMG_21011.jpg

IMG_21021.jpg IMG_21031.jpg

Some more photos please see at the next post
 
some more photos of the Book Review / Look Inside of

The Sailing Frigate: A History in Ship Models
by Robert GARDINER

IMG_21041.jpg IMG_21061.jpg

IMG_21071.jpg IMG_21081.jpg

IMG_21091.jpg IMG_21101.jpg

IMG_21111.jpg IMG_21121.jpg

IMG_21131.jpg
 

Attachments

  • IMG_21051.jpg
    IMG_21051.jpg
    250.9 KB · Views: 21
In addition the book „the sailing frigate, a history in ship models“ there other Publications written by Robert Gardiner which could be for interest:

The First Frigates
The Heavy Frigate
Warships of the Napoleonic area
Frigates of the Napoleonic Wars
The Hayday of Sail
Fleet Battle and Blockade
The Naval War of 1812
The Campaign of Trafalgar
The Advent of Steam
The Line of Battle
Steam, Steel & Shellfire
and several publications of Conway´s All the World´s Fighting ships

Most of these books are in my Library, so if there is some interest in a book review or Look Inside, write a short post
 
Last edited:
Back
Top