The technical details of British warships were recorded in a set of plans produced by the builders on completion of every ship. Known as the “as fitted” general arrangements, these drawings represented the exact appearance and fitting of the ship as it entered service. Intended to provide a permanent reference for the Admiralty and the dockyards, these highly detailed plans ...
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Battlecruiser Repulse
Detailed in the Original Builders' Plans
Available Formats: Hardcover
Feet to the Fire
"CIA Covert Operations in Indonesia, 1957-1958"
More than forty years ago the Central Intelligence Agency began a top-secret covert action campaign designed to hold Indonesia's left-leaning President Sukarno's feet to the fire and prevent a strategic crossroad from falling into the communist camp. In a fast-paced, engrossing narrative evoking the novels of John LeCarré and Graham Greene, the authors provide the first unclassified, detailed case study ...
Available Formats: Softcover
Commodore Ellsworth P. Bertholf
First Commandant of the Coast Guard
Written by a former Coast Guard officer, the book chronicles Commodore Ellsworth P. Bertholf ’s colorful early career with the service when he patrolled the vast reaches of the Pacific, enforced maritime laws regulating the fishing, sealing, and whaling industries, participated in daring rescues, and transported Siberian reindeer from Russia to the starving Inuits.
Available Formats: Softcover
Joshua Barney
Hero of the Revolution and 1812
Little has been published about the life of Baltimore’s Commodore Joshua Barney, a man who earned a commission in the nascent Continental Navy, sailed as a privateer, and served as a commodore in both the French and American navies. Louis Norton’s biography scrutinizes Barney's colorful life and critically analyzes events that forged his character.
Available Formats: Softcover
Prelude to Tragedy
"Vietnam, 1960-1965"
Foreword by Richard Holbrooke
Five American and three Vietnamese participants in the early days of U.S. involvement in southeast Asia compellingly argue that the failure of American policy in Vietnam was not inevitable. The common theme of their individual essays suggests that the war in Vietnam might have had a much different—and far less tragic—outcome if U.S. policy makers had ...
Available Formats: Hardcover
Burning of Washington
The British Invasion of 1814
With all the immediacy of an eyewitness account, Anthony Pitch tells the dramatic story of the British invasion of Washington in the summer of 1814, an episode many call a defining moment in the coming-of-age of the United States. The British torched the Capitol, the White House, and many other public buildings, setting off an inferno that illuminated the countryside ...
Available Formats: Softcover
Burning of Washington
The British Invasion of 1814
With all the immediacy of an eyewitness account, Anthony Pitch tells the dramatic story of the British invasion of Washington in the summer of 1814, an episode many call a defining moment in the coming-of-age of the United States. The British torched the Capitol, the White House, and many other public buildings, setting off an inferno that illuminated the countryside ...
Available Formats: Softcover
The U.S. Naval Institute on Naval Strategy
In the U.S. Navy, “Wheel Books” were once found in the uniform pockets of every junior and many senior petty officers. Each small notebook was unique to the Sailor carrying it, but all had in common a collection of data and wisdom that the individual deemed useful in the effective execution of his or her duties. Often used as a ...
Available Formats: Softcover
Congo
"The Miserable Expeditions and Dreadful Death of Lt. Emory Taunt, USN"
Lauded for his ability to tell compelling, true adventure stories, award-winning author Andrew C.A. Jampoler has turned his attention this time to a young American naval officer on a mission up the Congo River in May 1885. Lt. Emory Taunt was ordered to explore as much of the river as possible and report on opportunities for Americans in the potentially ...
Available Formats: Hardcover
Embassy to the Eastern Courts
"America's Secret First Pivot Toward Asia, 1832-37"
Some two centuries ago, during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, New England’s merchants and traders found themselves frozen out of their traditional markets in Europe and the Caribbean. Desperate for new business for their idled ships and crews, they asked President Andrew Jackson to explore opportunities for them on the other side of the globe. Prompted by the secretary of ...
Available Formats: Hardcover