British Battleships of the Victorian Era Hardcover – June 15, 2018 by Norman Friedman (Naval INstitute Press / Seaforth Publishing/ Pen & Sword Books)

Despite some annoying publisher flaws, I enjoyed Norman Friedman's "The British Battleship 1906-1946" immensely and was severely disappointed when the publication of its follow-up/prequel was repeatedly delayed. To me, the mid-to-late 1800s are probably the most fascinating period in warship development. Ships, armor, and guns all developed at a breakneck pace, revolutionary new weapons and ships were obsolete within years, naval architecture developed into an established science, and warship design was hotly debated in public and in the halls of government.

Although it sometimes gets bogged down by the author's odd tangents, I mostly found this to be a fascinating read. The first couple chapters lay the groundwork for the rest, explaining British naval strategy and the structure of the Admiralty, and the evolution of fleet tactics, guns, armor, and steam machinery during the Victorian era. The rest of the book gets down to the nitty-gritty details of ship design, naval strategy, the often strained relationships between British naval planners, naval architects, and politicians, and to a lesser extent, that of Britain's main potential future enemy, the French. Although it covers the entire period from the earliest steam-powered converted first-rates to the Duncan-class pre-dreadnoughts, Norman Friedman's main focus is on the Watts, Reed, and Barnaby eras. The post-Naval Defence Act battleships are also described, but not in quite as much detail. Not terribly surprising, as R.A. Burt did an excellent job describing them in his own work, and the ships were more evolutionary then revolutionary in nature.

It's worth pointing out that this doesn't set out to replace Parkes' British Battleships, Brown's Warrior to Dreadnought, or Burt's British Battleships, 1889-1904, which are all classic works in their own right. What Dr. Friedman has done is condense those three books into a single volume while applying his trademark stamp to the proceedings. As usual, this is an extremely dense work; the text tends to be rather tersely written and is largely devoid of pretension, photo captions occasionally go on for paragraphs, and the footnotes occupy 49 pages and contain enough detail for another book. This isn't beach reading, and like the author's other works, it's worth setting aside at least two weeks to properly assimilate it.

On a visual level, it corrects some of the annoying issues of its predecessor. Very few of the photos run through the binding, and of those that do, the masts and funnels don't fall into the gutter. Although some of the wartime images are rather rough looking, most of the photographs are of excellent quality and seem to have been scanned from the original negatives. The lack of plans by AD Baker III is perhaps the biggest disappointment, although this is made up for by the inclusion of numerous original "as fitted" plans and a number of deck plans. Highlights include an exquisitely detailed plan depicting the loading arrangements of "Inflexible"'s forward 16-inch turret, plans and sections of "Devastation," large-scale drawings of, among others, "Alexandra," "Captain," and "Royal Sovereign," and a full-color gatefold depicting "Camperdown" in 1900.

Unfortunately, there's a couple elements that don't totally work. The last two chapters, focusing on ironclads built for export and of the pre-dreadnought's wartime experiences, are extremely sketchy and perfunctory in tone. The latter chapter includes some interesting insights into the ships' ability to survive underwater damage, but the level of detail is extremely disappointing considering how in-depth the rest of the book is. At the end of most chapters is a four-or-five "addendum" describing French developments in ironclad design and strategy during the period described by the rest of the chapter. Although they provide a necessary counterpoint to the British side of things, they also feel rather tacked-on, rather than properly incorporated into the text. Finally, and rather frustratingly considering the number of publication delays, there's a large number of typos and oddly structured sentences which left me scratching my head.

Although it's not a flawless masterpiece, this should make an outstanding reference for anyone fascinated by the design of British warships in the second half of the 20th century. With a little tightening here and there, and some careful editing, it would have been a true five-star classic.