“Students of naval history will find this book invaluable for understanding how Great Britain maintained its maritime pre-eminence through the long eighteenth century, while those looking to understand and to revive ancient crafts have a comprehensive, readily intelligible, and lavishly illustrated guidebook. Brian Lavery has demonstrated that the printed book is as flexible and as user-friendly a medium as the tablet and the television.” ─Australian Naval Institute. 

"In summary, in this book Brian Lavery has exploited the best of contemporary publishing skill, especially in colour illustration, to provide a synthesis of the insights available in his earlier major works such as The Ship of the Line and The Arming and Fitting of English Ships of War, 1600-1815.  Here his years as senior curator at NMM bear further fruit, and this authoritative account in affordable and handy format cannot be commended too highly."—The Naval Review

“If you like ships, especially wooden military ones, this book will teach you a great deal. A high-quality book which is recommended to all ship historians and modellers.”—Military Modelling

“This book includes plentiful visual representations of actual ships in model form and the accompanying graphics make for wonderful reading. Even if you do not read a single word in the book the models alone create enough gog in a person of any age. The models were all built to scale and the attention to detail is mesmerizing…. The pages are crisp, the illustrations and photos are clear, and I cannot express enough how enjoyable this book is to read.”—Spotter Up