British Naval Shipbuilding - The D K Brown Quintet book review

If, like me, you're a fan of historical wargaming, you may sometimes ask yourself why a particular nation ended up fielding the equipment it did. From the poor sod in a foxhole given a rifle of questionable value to a pilot flying the most cutting edge aircraft their nation's aerospace industry can produce (and still be of questionable value), there are reasons as to why what made it into service actually got there. After all, it can take years from initial idea to service entry and factors technological, political and financial will all have had an effect on what eventually enters service. 

This is even more evident when it comes to ships, where design and construction of a class of vessel can take decades and even a single ship can take a dozen years or longer (e.g. HMS Ark Royal, R09, ordered 1942, commissioned 1955. Although an outlier as war and technological innovations delayed construction, many recent equipment projects seem to think of a decade as just the planning stage...) So what does it take to design warships?

In the case of the Royal Navy, you have this quintet of tomes from D K Brown (along with George Moore in the final volume). Brown was a naval architect whose career peaked as Deputy Chief Naval Architect of the Royal Corps of Naval Constructors by the time he retired in 1988. Before passing away in 2008, he wrote these five volumes covering ship construction for the Royal Navy from 1815 to 2002. The five titles in the series are as follows:

Before the Ironclad - Warship Design and Development 1815 to 1860

Warrior to Dreadnought - Warship Design and Development 1860 to 1905

The Grand Fleet - Warship Design and Development 1906 to 1922

Nelson to Vanguard - Warship Design and Development 1923 to 1945

Rebuilding the Royal Navy - Warship Design Since 1945

Each volume is well laid out and illustrated with plates, photographs, diagrams and illustrations. There are tables galore and, whilst it can get a little technical, the presentation and style of writing is clear enough to make even the most complicated of topics understandable to the layperson. The author's own knowledge of ship construction is very much to the fore and he does comment quite frequently with observations and asides to give additional depth to the main text. 

What is apparent when reading these books in order is the struggle those leading the Royal Navy had in ensuring that they had the best ships to complete the politically assigned tasks given them whilst also maintaining a superiority over potential enemies and not bankrupting the nation at the same time. The sheer amount of experimentation, especially in the period 1860 to 1900, betrays the image of a service bound to tradition (as in the Nelsonian manner). Indeed, there was a self-awareness that whilst the ships that entered service looked impressive, there was a growing and incessant belief that maybe, just maybe, they would not meet their own self-imposed standards in battle.

What Brown does is bring into focus the construction of ships (and boats after 1900, can't forget the submersibles) of all types. From the largest battleships to the dinkiest of escorts and miscellaneous craft, each gets a history, both technical and in the wider sense of operational requirement and use. That is not to say you'll get full service histories or class details. These books are strictly technically orientated. 

For me, the most interesting volumes are the fourth and fifth, covering the post First World War to the turn of the century. Volume four covers the build up of the fleet that fought in the Second World War and although the mythical ships of the 1920's and 30's merely get a mention, the pace of development of the ships that actually served is well covered. I am not entirely sure of his assertation that the Vanguard could have handled something like the Yamato but hey, he was a ship designer and I am just a mere wargamer. Besides, it would make an interesting battle for a Saturday afternoon... Volume five is where it really becomes interesting for me, as this was the period where money was really tight, technology was advancing faster than the construction programs could keep up, and there were paper designs galore for the Royal Navy. From the numerous carrier and cruiser projects that money would never have been made available for (never mind the cost of crewing them), to the fanciful ideas to replace the Type 42's (a bigger class, Type 43 with either double ended Sea Darts and a helicopter platform midships or an enhanced vessel with it's own flight of Sea Harriers!), there was much innovative thinking, just not a great deal of actual construction due to monetary and political considerations. Still what was built was enough to fulfil the political demands of the UK government, from the Falklands War to the Armilla patrol, the Gulf War and beyond. 

For wargamers, this quintet will provide not only understanding as to why your playing with the particular toys on the table you are but can also be used to provide a bit more verisimilitude to your games. After all, historical wargaming should include a little bit of history and you will find a great deal of that (from a technical point of view) here. It also helps hat the author adds some comparisons to foreign ships at various points.

As the volumes are clearly defined in chronological terms, wargamers have an easy choice to make so as to fit their period. Each volume is a superb reference on why specific ships were built for the Royal Navy. However, I feel that the collection should be read as a whole so you gain an understanding not only of the technological developments through the years but also the political and financial pressures that forced construction and service limitations on the Navy. 

Finding physical copies of these books was a bit of a chore, from Waterstones to wargames shows and even the Postscript book catalogue service. The price you'll pay will also vary. However, if you have a large screen tablet, you can often pick up some of these volumes on Kindle for just a few pounds. If you're a naval buff or wargamer (or both!), I heartily recommend you get your hands on these.