The Ship of the Line (A History in Ship Models)

The book arrived quickly. I have quite a library of ship modeling, nautical books. This one, and two others in the series, are loaded with wonderful photos of contemporary models, mostly from the National Maritime Museum. That was my main reason for buying these books. They are not modeling books, just something to marvel at and admire. Worth it. The historic text is well done also.

The five star reviews describe a completely different book than the one for sale here. This book contains NO information about ship design, construction, armament, etc. It is a general history of the wars of England and France in the referenced period. Most of the emphasis is on politics, diplomacy, and finances. It does not even go into any detail on naval operations. For example, Admiral Vernon's capture of Portobello in 1740 is refenced in a single sentence that describes it's effect on British public opinion! It's as if the kindle edition accidentally downloaded the text of different general history, that had nothing to do with ships, or even navies.,

Beautiful book! I bought this for my dad on Father’s Day and he loves it!!!

Overall this book was disappointing. At only 120 pages, it's too short to provide adequate detail on either the evolution of the ship of the line, or of the techniques of ship modeling. While beautifully illustrated, at 8" by 10" it's in no respect a coffee table art book. Being neither fish nor fowl, it doesn't really succeed.

Excellent book. One of my top three on the subject, and I have read every one I could find for 55 years. That is a lot of books on model sailing ship models, believe me.

Unbelievable pictures and very informative print to accompany them. Would have liked a bit more photos of details of the ships close up pictures of deck furniture and rigging patterns.

An excellent companion volume to The Sailing Frigate and the Jack Aubrey spinoffs.

Excellent book. A must for any sailing ship enthusiast.

Excellent picture book and good value

Wieder einmal ein schönes Buch aus der Feder von Brian Lavery, den ich sehr verehre.Für Modellbauer etwas schade, dass so gut wie keine Pläne enthalten sind, man muss mit den Fotos der alten Modelle vorlieb nehmen.Leider hat man irgendwie das Gefühl, man würde einen großen Teil bereits kennen.Und bei mir kam heute zufällig zeitgleich ein anderes Buch, über Modelle aus den Madrider Museen an.Inhaltlich also sehr ähnlich (Museumsmodelle derselben Epoche), aber das Buch über die spanischen Schiffe ist vom Format her fast doppelt so groß, hat mehr als doppelt so viele Seite und kostet ca. 30% weniger. - Gut, dafür ist es auf Französisch, statt auf Englisch, aber wen stört das, bei einem "Bilderbuch" (beide gehen stark in Richtung "Bilderbuch").Dazu kommt, dass man die spanischen Schiffe bislang eher selten zu Gesicht bekommen hat. Und von der Qualität her können die spanischen Modelle durchaus mit den französischen und britischen Modellen mithalten (übertreffen sie teilweise sogar!).Unterm Strich: Nach wie vor ein tolles Buch von Brian Lavery, aber nicht unbedingt als "Schnäppchen" zu betrachten.

Je m'attendais à plus. Très belle photos d'anciens modèles naval mais cet tout. En lecture, le livre relate l'évolution des marines de guerre du 17, 18 et 19 ieme siècles basé sur quelques fait historiques mais sans vraiment approfondir. Fallait se décider, faire un livre sur les maquettes de l'époque ou un livre d'histoires . Pour moi cela n'en valais le coût.

Is a book that should cost no more than 10 to 15.-EUR. For this price it would be ok, nothing special, but a nice book on a shelf, but almost 50.-EUR is just a fraud!!!!

Reads like a really long encyclopedia entry. The author has no ability to tell an interesting story - just regurgitates a lot of information. It may be accurate, but it was incredibly boring to read.