The Richard Perkins warship identification albums form one of the most detailed studies ever undertaken of the changes to the appearance of Royal Navy ships. However, it is a unique hand-drawn manuscript artifact in the care of the National Maritime Museum, so despite its value it is rarely seen by anyone besides the museum’s curators, for whom it is a precious resource, used on an almost daily basis.

The first publication of this monumental work in a superbly produced multi-volume edition that captures all the qualities of the original has been possible because of the collaboration with the museum. Every page is reproduced at full size, making the extensive hand-written annotation readable, while the fine-line drawings retain all the colors that Perkins used to denote appearance differences and alterations.

Following the museum’s binding arrangement, the third volume of the series is the first half of the coverage of all cruisers from the Amazon-class corvettes of 1865 to the Belfast-class of 1939; the second half constitutes Volume IV. Highlights of this first part include armored cruisers, the so-called large light cruisers, and the cruisers of the inter-war period.