Ships of the American Revolution and Their Models

US Naval Institute Press. Very Good/Very Good. 2000. Hard Cover. 4to 0870216538 Dust jacket complete, unclipped, slightly wear to edges. Original cloth boards with bright gilt titling on spine, rubbed to edges. No ownership marks. Numerous photographs, line drawings, and blueprints. 288 pages clean and tight. Detailed information for the model builder. When the American colonies declared their independence in 1776, they were ill-prepared for a regular maritime war, and consequently pressed into service ex-privateers and many small and fast merchant ships before building a small number of frigates and lesser warships. Great Britain, on the other hand, had the largest navy of the time, but still found herself poorly equipped to fight a guerilla war at sea and so also increased the numbers of small craft by purchase and capture. This book presents a representative sample of these smaller ships - privateers and regular warships, American and British - including an example of the kind of line-of-battle ship that became important after the French entered the conflict in 1778. The ships concerned are: Roebuck, a British 44-gun ship of 1774. Druid, a British 16-gun sloop of 1776. Hancock, an American frigate of 1777. Oliver Cromwell, an American privateer of 1777. Confederacy, an American frigate of 1778. Pelican, an ex-French privateer captured by the British in 1781. Alfred, a British 74-gun ship of 1778. The first half of the book deals with the history of each vessel, providing the reader with a lively impression of the service expected of these ships and the actual nature of the maritime war. Thereafter, the author, who is Americas leading exponent of 'plank on frame' ship modelling, devotes the remaining chapters to step-by-step detailed descriptions of building such a model, taking the Alfred (the largest and most complex ship) as his prime subject. Specially commissioned photographs illustrate every stage and full sets of plans for each ship are included. .