Books for studying naval guns and ship construction

Which books are useful next steps for learning about naval guns?

Hans Mehl's Naval Guns: 500 Years of Ship and Coastal Artillery is recommended as an accessible starting point, with its bibliography providing a route into more detailed work.

Hans Mehl's Naval Guns: 500 Years of Ship and Coastal Artillery is recommended as a relatively short introduction. Its bibliography and list of sources are suggested as a practical way to expand into more detailed reading. Norman Friedman's work on battleship guns is also mentioned, without a definite title. Recommendations for seventeenth-century ship construction include The Lost Ships of Charles II's Navy, Understanding the Seventeenth-Century Warship and The Master Shipwright's Secrets. The last of these is recommended for the building of the Restoration navy and is described as an Anderson Medal winner in 2020. Soviet Cold War destroyer studies provide another specialist branch. Further gunnery recommendations include Chris Henry's work on Napoleonic naval armaments from 1792 to 1815 and Ships and Guns for Venetian and Mediterranean material between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries. These books vary greatly in scope and price, so the recommendation begins with an introduction and follows its references into a chosen subject.