Warship Builders
Warship Builders

Author: Thomas Heinrich

Publisher: Naval Institute Press

Published: 2020-11-15

Total Pages: 327

ISBN-13: 1682475530

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Warship Builders is the first scholarly study of the U.S. naval shipbuilding industry from the early 1920s to the end of World War II, when American shipyards produced the world's largest fleet that helped defeat the Axis powers in all corners of the globe. A colossal endeavor that absorbed billions and employed virtual armies of skilled workers, naval construction mobilized the nation's leading industrial enterprises in the shipbuilding, engineering, and steel industries to deliver warships whose technical complexity dwarfed that of any other weapons platform. Based on systematic comparisons with British, Japanese, and German naval construction, Thomas Heinrich pinpoints the distinct features of American shipbuilding methods, technology development, and management practices that enabled U.S. yards to vastly outproduce their foreign counterparts. Throughout the book, comparative analyses reveal differences and similarities in American, British, Japanese, and German naval construction. Heinrich shows that U.S. and German shipyards introduced electric arc welding and prefabrication methods to a far greater extent than their British and Japanese counterparts between the wars, laying the groundwork for their impressive production records in World War II. While the American and Japanese navies relied heavily on government-owned navy yards, the British and German navies had most of their combatants built in corporately-owned yards, contradicting the widespread notion that only U.S. industrial mobilization depended on private enterprise. Lastly, the U.S. government's investments into shipbuilding facilities in both private and government-owned shipyards dwarfed the sums British, Japanese, and German counterparts expended. This enabled American builders to deliver a vast fleet that played a pivotal role in global naval combat.

Warship Builders
Warship Builders

Author: Thomas Heinrich

Publisher:

Published: 2020-11-15

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 9781682475379

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Warship Builders is the first scholarly study of the U.S. naval shipbuilding industry from the early 1920s to the end of World War II, when American shipyards produced the world's largest fleet that helped defeat the Axis powers in all corners of the globe. A colossal endeavor that absorbed billions and employed virtual armies of skilled workers, naval construction mobilized the nation's leading industrial enterprises in the shipbuilding, engineering, and steel industries to deliver warships whose technical complexity dwarfed that of any other weapons platform. Based on systematic comparisons with British, Japanese, and German naval construction, Thomas Heinrich pinpoints the distinct features of American shipbuilding methods, technology development, and management practices that enabled U.S. yards to vastly outproduce their foreign counterparts. Throughout the book, comparative analyses reveal differences and similarities in American, British, Japanese, and German naval construction. Heinrich shows that U.S. and German shipyards introduced electric arc welding and prefabrication methods to a far greater extent than their British and Japanese counterparts between the wars, laying the groundwork for their impressive production records in World War II. While the American and Japanese navies relied heavily on government-owned navy yards, the British and German navies had most of their combatants built in corporately-owned yards, contradicting the widespread notion that only U.S. industrial mobilization depended on private enterprise. Lastly, the U.S. government's investments into shipbuilding facilities in both private and government-owned shipyards dwarfed the sums British, Japanese, and German counterparts expended. This enabled American builders to deliver a vast fleet that played a pivotal role in global naval combat.

The Battleship Builders
The Battleship Builders

Author: Ian Johnston

Publisher: Naval Institute Press

Published: 2013-04-15

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 1612519466

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The launch in 1906 of HMS Dreadnought, the world’s first all-big-gun battleship, rendered all existing battle fleets obsolete while at the same time wiping out the Royal Navy’s numerical advantage. Britain urgently needed to build an entirely new battle fleet of these larger, more complex and more costly vessels. In this she succeeded spectacularly: in little over a decade fifty such ships were completed, almost exactly double what Germany achieved. This heroic achievement was made possible by the country’s vast industrial nexus of shipbuilders, engine manufacturers, armament firms and specialist armor producers, whose contribution to the creation of the Grand Fleet is too often ignored.

The Battleship Builders Constructing and Arming British Capital Ships
The Battleship Builders Constructing and Arming British Capital Ships

Author: Ian Buxton

Publisher: Seaforth Publishing

Published: 2013-05-08

Total Pages: 323

ISBN-13: 1848320930

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The launch in 1606 of HMS Dreadnought, the worlds's first all-big-gun battleship, rendered all existing battle fleets obsolete, but at the same time it wiped out the Royal Navy's numerical advantage, so expensively maintained for decades. Already locked in the same arms race with Germany, Britain urgently needed to build an entirely new battle fleet of these larger, more complex and more costly vessels In this she succeeded spectacularly; in little over a decade fifty such ships were completed, almost exactly double that of what Germany achieved It was only made possible by the companyÍs vast industrial nexus of shipbuilders, engine manufacturers, armament fleets and specialist armour producers, whose contribution to the Grand Feet is too often ignored. This heroic achievement, and how it was done, is the subject of this book. It charts the rise of the large industrial conglomerates that were key to this success, looks at the reaction to fast-moving technical changes, and analyses the politics of funding this vast national effort, both before and beyond the Great War. It also attempts to assess the true cost- and value- of the Grand Fleet in terms of the resources consumed. And finally, by way of contrast, it describes the effects of the post-war recession, industrial contraction, and the very different responses to rearmament in the run up to the Second World War.

Ships and Shipbuilders
Ships and Shipbuilders

Author: Fred M Walker

Publisher: Seaforth Publishing

Published: 2010-05-05

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 1848320728

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In the past three centuries the ship has developed from the relatively unsophisticated sail-driven vessel which would have been familiar to the sailors of the Tudor navy, to the huge motor-driven container ships, nuclear submarines and vast cruise liners that ply our seas today. Who were the innovators and builders who, during that span of time, prompted and instigated the most significant advances? In the past three centuries the ship has developed from the relatively unsophisticated sail-driven vessel which would have been familiar to the sailors of the Tudor navy, to the huge motor-driven container ships, nuclear submarines and vast cruise liners that ply our seas today. Who were the innovators and builders who, during that span of time, prompted and instigated the most significant advances? In this new book the author describes the lives and deeds of more the 120 great engineers, scientists, philosophers, businessmen, shipwrights, naval architects and inventors who shaped ship design and shipbuilding world wide. Covering the story chronologically, and going back briefly even to Archimedes, such well-known names as Anthony Deane, Peter the Great, James Watt, Robert Fulton and Isambard Kingdom Brunel share space with lesser known characters like the luckless Frederic Sauvage, a pioneer of screw propulsion who, unable to interest the French navy in his tests in the early 1830s, was bankrupted and landed in debtor’s prison. With the inclusion of such names as Ben Lexcen, the Australian yacht designer who developed the controversial winged keel for the 1983 America’s Cup, the story is brought right up to date. Concise linking chapters place all these innovators in context so that a clear and fascinating history of the development of ships and shipbuilding emerges from the pages. An original and important new reference book.

Wooden Warship Construction
Wooden Warship Construction

Author: Brian Lavery

Publisher: Seaforth Publishing

Published: 2017-04-30

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 1473894824

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“A wonderful book detailing the construction of the Royal Navy’s sailing warships” from the maritime historian and author of Nelson’s Navy (Pirates and Privateers). The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich houses the largest collection of scale ship models in the world, many of which are official, contemporary artifacts made by the craftsmen of the navy or the shipbuilders themselves, and 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. This book takes a selection of the best models to both describe and demonstrate the development of warship construction in all its complexity from the beginning of the 18th century to the end of wooden shipbuilding. For this purpose, it reproduces a large number of model photos, all in full color, and including many close-up and detail views. These are captioned in depth, but many are also annotated to focus attention on interesting or unusual features, which can be shown far more clearly than described. Although pictorial in emphasis, the book weaves the pictures into an authoritative text, producing an unusual and attractive form of technical history. “This book includes plentiful visual representations of actual ships in model form and the accompanying graphics make for wonderful reading . . . I cannot express enough how enjoyable this book is to read.”—Spotter Up “A high-quality book which is recommended to all ship historians and modellers.”—Military Modelling

Building the Wooden Fighting Ship
Building the Wooden Fighting Ship

Author: James Dodds

Publisher: Greenhill Books

Published: 2022-01-30

Total Pages: 403

ISBN-13: 1784387533

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A fascinating account of the building of an historic ship, as well as a vivid and often surprising account of life and labour in the eighteenth century. In an age before industrialisation, the warship was the most complex object built by man and employed the most advanced technology of its time. Naval vessels of the period were, not surprisingly, so expensive to construct that meticulous records were kept, from the purchasing of timbers to the last details of their furnishings and armament, including even the individual names of some of the shipwrights and craftsmen. By carefully studying these records, the authors of Building the Wooden Fighting Ship have reconstructed, in extraordinary detail, the building of HMS Thunderer—a two-decked, 74-gun ship-of-the-line. In words and specially drawn illustrations, contemporary prints and paintings, the authors show every stage of the building of this ship, from the purchase and cutting of timbers right through to the launch in 1760. There are descriptions of Woolwich dockyard where she was built and details of all the skills and trades involved in her construction. First published in 1984, this book is a beautiful and highly informative work on a significant aspect of the Royal Navy and will appeal to enthusiasts, modellers, historians, and anyone with an interest in traditional crafts. Praise for Building the Wooden Fighting Ship “This book will appeal to model builders who focus on the Age of Sail and anyone interested in how these incredible pieces of art and engineering were constructed.” —Nautical Research Journal “Dodds is both a shipwright and an artist, whose black and white drawings provide readers with a clear understanding of each facet along the way. Moore sails yachts and writes books about ships. Their expertise shines through, turning what might be a ho-hum dry treatise on shipbuilding into a fascinating and easy-to-understand narrative. Originally published in 1984, this new edition is beautifully rendered and well worth the price. There are so many details presented that even those familiar with ship construction will discover new tidbits of information, while those with little understanding of the industry will come away with a deeper appreciation of what it took to build one wooden fighting ship out of more than 3,400 oak trees.” —Pirates and Privateers