Naval Miscellany

by Konstam, Angus

• ISBN13: 9781846039898
• ISBN10: 1846039894
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-04-20
• Publisher: Osprey Publishing

Summary

For armchair admirals, history buffs, and naval enthusiasts everywhere, A Naval Miscellany is an indispensible and entertaining collection of fascinating and little-known facts, anecdotes, lists, curiosities and stories from our naval past. Forgotten heroes, amazing blunders, surprising trivia, and strange-but-true stories are all included. Who were the naval heroes of the ancient world, and the world's worst admirals? How much did a midshipman get paid in the eighteenth century? What are the origins of sea shanties? Where are the biggest naval bases in the world today? And how does a ship float? It's all here in this little book that will amaze and enlighten even the most avid student of naval history!

Author Biography

Angus Konstam hails from the Orkney Islands, and is the author of over 50 books, 30 of which are published by Osprey. This acclaimed and-+widely published author-+has written several books on piracy, including The History of Pirates. His most recent work is a full-length piratical biography: Blackbeard: America's Most-+Notorious Pirate.-+-+A former naval officer and museum professional, he worked as the Curator of Weapons at the Tower of London and as the Chief Curator of the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum in Key West, Florida. He now works-+as a full-time author and historian, and lives in Edinburgh, Scotland. The author lives in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Table of Contents

Draft contents:

1. Flogging, Sodomy and the Lash
2. Naval Heroes of the Ancient World
3. The Most Successful Admirals in History
4. Popular Warship Names
5. The Biggest Navy, the Best Navy and the Most Successful
6. Getting the Message – Naval Signal Flags
7. Remembering the Rum Ration
8. Privateers or Pirates
9. Sea Battle in Close-up: The Bonhomme Richard and the Serapis
10. The Ten Worst Naval Disasters
11. The Ten Most Decisive Naval Battles
12. Convoy Battles
13. Piping the Side
14. The Earliest Submarines
15. What was the Nelson Touch?
16. Naval Medicine in the Age of Sail – Kill or Cure?
17. Anchors Aweigh – How anchors work
18. A Few Great Quotes by Fighting Admirals
19. Nuclear Submarines – a few strange facts
20. Sea Battle in Close-Up: Sinking the Bismarck
21. The World's Worst Admirals
22. The Deepest Naval Shipwrecks
23. Warship type: U-Boat
24. The Anaconda Plan and the US Navy
25. Sea Battle in Close-up: the Monitor and the Merrimac
26. The Sails of a Sailing Warship
27. Naval Ranks
28. Fighting Admiral: De Grasse
29. Island Hopping Campaigns
30. Manning a Sailing Ship of War
31. How to Navigate by the Stars
32. What is a Two Ocean Navy?
33. The Biggest Guns in Naval History
34. Fact File: Q-Ships and Decoy Ships
35. Naval Disasters: Convoy PQ-17
36. Sea Battle in Close-up: The Nile
37. Fact File: Pook's Turtles
38. How Mines Work
39. John Paul Jones and the Russian Navy
40. The Captain: A Man Apart?
41. Warship Type: Destroyer
42. Minesweeping for Beginners
43. The Definition of Seapower
44. Famous Warship Profile: USS Constitution
45. Fighting Admiral: Decatur
46. Blockading an Enemy Coast
47. Shipwrecked Sailors and Castaways
48. Pirate Hunting during the Age of Sail
49. The Ten Most Famous Frigate Actions
50. Naval Pay through the Ages
51. The First Guns at Sea
52. Keelhauling and Hanging from the Yardarm
53. Sea Battle in Close-up: Manila Bay
54. The Story of Radar
55. Warship type: Cog
56. Naval Disaster: The Philadelphia
57. Fighting Admiral: Samson
58. The Power Game: Wind, Coal, Oil and Nuclear fission
59. US Naval Acronyms
60. The Origin of Sea Shanties
61. The Top Ten Fictional Naval Heroes
62. Famous Warship Profile: HMS Hood
63. Wind and Current
64. Fact File: Torpedoes in the American Civil War
65. Amphibious Landings
66. The Ten Biggest Naval Bases in the World
67. Famous Warship Shipwrecks
68. The World's Sea Lanes
69. British Naval Expressions
70. The Story of the Carronade
71. Fighting Admiral: Farragut
72. Wooden legs, and one-eyed cooks
73. Naval Disaster: The Monitor
74. When did women first serve at sea?
75. Buoyancy and Ship Design – What floats your boat?
76. Warship type: Longship
77. Why are sailors smarter than Marines?
78. Battle Honours and how they work
79. Fighting Admiral: Blake
80. The Arctic Convoys – in numbers
81. Naval Power in 1990
82. Fact File: The 100 ton muzzle-loading gun
83. How Marine Steam Engines Work
84. Famous Warship Profile: HMS Victory
85. Sailor's uniforms in the age of sail
86. Fact file: the Cruise of the Emden
87. Ten Battles at Impossible Odds
88. Naval Acronyms – a bluffers guide
89. Fighting Admiral: Togo
90. The Ten Most Successful Torpedo Attacks
91. Brown-Water Navies
92. Ten Liners that served as warships
93. Naval Disasters: the Vasa
94. Dry Ships and Wet Ships: Alcohol at Sea
95. The Top Ten Maritime Superstitions
96. Damage Control in a Modern Warship
97. The Most Treacherous Waters
98. Naval Gunfire Support – How it Works
99. Sea Battle in Close-up: The Coral Sea
100. How the US Navy began
101. Warship type: Galleon
102. Naval Power in 1941
103. Naval Guns in the Age of Sail
104. Don't give up the ship!
105. Fighting Admiral: Nimitz
106. Ten Traditional Naval Drinks
107. Famous Warship Profile: The USS Enterprise
108. Roundshot, Grapeshot or Chainshot, Sir?
109. A Scurvy Crew: How Scurvy was identified and cured
110. Feeding the Guns: Ammunition Supply
111. Fighting the Martians: Navies in Science Fiction
112. Naval Disaster: Force Z
113. Visiting Davy Jones' Locker: Burial at Sea
114. Hospital Ships in Action
115. Warship type: Cruiser
116. Strange and Unusual Punishments
117. Ship's Pets and Mascots
118. The tradition of going down with the ship
119. Naval Power in 1939
120. Sea Battle in Close-up: Mobile Bay
121. Sailors in Popular Culture
122. Fighting Admiral: Cowan
123. Why did the USS Maine Blow Up?
124. Naval Disaster: The Campbeltown
125. Fact File: The Flight of the Goeben
126. The Ten Most Important Naval Mutinies
127. Sea Battle in Close-Up: Jutland
128. The First Dreadnought
129. The Need for Speed – Fast Attack Craft
130. Steam or Sail? The Age of the Hybrid Warship
131. What is a Lee Shore?
132. Famous Warship Profile: The Bismarck
133. Fighting Admiral: Nelson
134. The Swiss Navy, the Czech Navy and other Landlocked Fleets
135. The story of the Steam Engine
136. Designing the Monitor
137. The Great Naval Arms Race
138. Zeppelins and Flying Boats: Origins of Naval Airpower
139. The Roaring Forties: Warships in a Storm
140. The Ten Most Useful Knots on board a warship
141. Naval Power in 1914
142. Great Naval Ports of Call and Runs Ashore
143. Sea Battle in Close-up: Midway
144. Sailors in the Army: The Story of the Naval Brigades
145. Famous Warship Profile: USS Maine
146. Naval Guns in the Age of the Battleship
147. Anti-Aircraft Fire
148. The Affair of the USS Hunley
149. Ship type: Frigate
150. Breakthroughs in Navigation
151. How a Flight Deck Works
152. Unusual Facts about Pearl Harbor
153. Fact File: The Disaster of the Mary Rose
154. The World's Most Ridiculous Warships
155. Naval Power in 1794
156. Fact File: Mimi and Toutou – warships in the middle of Africa
157. Warships on the Big Screen
158. Passing the Port and other Wardroom Niceties
159. Famous Warship Profile: The Yamato
160. The Word Battleship
161. The Six Battles of Guadalcanal
162. Maiden Voyages that ended in tears
163. The Top Ten Battleships of all time
164. The Great Sea Battles with Pirates
165. Naval Power in 1861
166. What is the Weather Gauge?
167. Ship type: Ship-of-the-Line
168. Donald Duck and the War Effort
169. The First Aircraft Carriers
170. Cockleshell Raiders and other naval stealth attacks
171. Send the Marines - The Origins of the US Marine Corps
172. The Story of the Compass
173. Sea Battle in Close-up- The Constitution and the Guerriere
174. Famous Amphibious Landings
175. Designing a Modern Warship
176. The Story of Armour
177. Sea Battle in Close-up: Copenhagen
178. Naval Recruitment, from Press Gangs to the Village People
179. Naval Power in 1776
180. Who were Nelson's captains?
181. The Least Successful Ship Designs
182. How a warship is launched
183. Famous Warship profile: USS Nautilus
184. Sea Battle in Close-up: The Spanish Armada
185. Naval Watches – Dividing up the Naval Day
186. Naval Ensigns and National Flags
187. Send a Signal: Morse Code or Semaphore?
188. Guided Missiles
189. Sea Battle in Close-up: The Sinking of the Scharnhorst
190. Survival Chances in the Open Sea
191. Grey Ships, Grey Seas, Grey Sky: Warship Camouflage
192. Fact File: Coaling Stations – the reason for Empire!
193. Mothballing a warship
194. Blockade Running for Beginners
195. Famous Warship profile: CSS Virginia
196. Nelson's Injuries, and other limbless admirals
197. Naval Power in 1880
198. Whites and Blues – The Quirks of Naval Uniform
199. An old salt's guide to food preservation in the age of sail
200. Hunter Killer – Submarine versus Submarine warfare