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Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #56777.
Frederick Leslie Robertson’s work is a technical survey of naval material development, aimed at filling the gap he perceives between classic histories and modern textbooks. The opening pages make clear that the author, an engineer, intends to trace the intertwined progress of ship hulls, artillery, and propulsion from the age of sail through the advent of iron‑clad warships, beginning his narrative with the “Admiral” class battleship of about 1880. He acknowledges the assistance of Admiralty officials and museum curators, and the book is organized into ten chapters that move chronologically from early sailing ships to steam engines, new gunnery principles, and the ironclad. The introductory chapter already sets the scope, noting the scarcity of popular‑language treatments of naval material and promising a “sketch” drawn from authorities such as Charnock, Fincham, Nicolas and Oppenheim.
The prose reflects the early‑20th‑century scholarly style of a naval engineer, blending detailed description with occasional digressions into broader historical context. Its language is formal yet accessible, avoiding the dense technicalities of contemporary naval architecture treatises while still assuming a reader’s interest in the evolution of warship design and armament. Students of maritime history, enthusiasts of naval engineering, and readers who appreciate a methodical, documentary approach to the subject will find Robertson’s systematic account both informative and engaging.
The opening · free to read
The lack of a book describing in popular language the materialistic side of naval history is, I think, generally admitted. Historians as a rule have devoted small space to consideration of material; in particular, the story of the revolutionary changes in naval material which took place during the nineteenth century has never been placed before the public in convenient form. In the attempt to supply such a description I have taken the liberty, as an engineer, of treating of naval material as a whole; tracing, as well as my technical knowledge permits, the progress of all the three principal elements--ship, gun, engine--and their interdependence. The result, faulty and incomplete as it is, may nevertheless be of considerable service, it is hoped, in clarifying the work of the historians and bridging the gap which divides the classic histories from our modern text-books.
I have considered our modern navy to begin with the “Admiral” class of battleship, about the year 1880.
My respectful thanks are due to the heads of three Admiralty departments: Captain R. H. Crooke, C.B., lately Director of Naval Ordnance; Engineer Vice-Admiral Sir George Goodwin, K.C.B., LL.D., Engineer-in-Chief of the Fleet; and Sir Eustace T. D’Eyncourt, K.C.B., Director of Naval Construction; for their unofficial approval. I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to the officials of the Admiralty and the R.U.S.I. libraries, for their invariable kindness; to the Directors of the British and S. Kensington Museums, for permission to reproduce pictures in their possession; to Mr. A. W. Johns, C.B.E., Assistant Director of Naval Construction, Engineer Commander E. C. Smith, O.B.E., R.N., Mr. H. W. Dickinson, of the S. Kensington Museum, Mr. Edward Fraser, and Sir George Hadcock, F.R.S., R.A., of Elswick, for various help and criticism; and especially to Mr. L. G. Carr Laughton, of the Admiralty library, of whose advice and knowledge I have often availed myself, and to whose encouragement the completion of the work has been largely due.
It only remains to state that the whole of the book is written and published on my own responsibility, and that it is in no manner or degree an official publication.
F. L. R.
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