Bruships 87: Books Found on My Travels, New Books & Christmas Recomendations

The first recommendation combines a compact history of HMS Victory with a survey of model kits, paint schemes, and scratch-building options.

Probably yes; political and institutional inertia would favor completing a ship that embodied Britain's accumulated capital-ship knowledge.

Sam Willis's object-based shipwreck history leads into the wreck of Sea Venture, the settlement of Bermuda, and the castaways' eventual voyage to Jamestown.

Yes; the fleet-wide gains in engines, radar, armor, and anti-aircraft weapons would far outweigh losing one day.

County-class eight-inch turrets, arranged in several three-turret batteries, would impose a formidable barrier to attack.

Powering the World's Airlines traces engine development from the 1930s and wartime production through turbojets, turbofans, and the economics of buying an airliner.

Its handling changed from race-car-like responsiveness to a rally car's need for more anticipation and tolerance of rougher conditions.

Most would sail in convoy because they are too slow to operate safely alone; Queen Mary 2 might be an exception.

A high-quality fifteen-inch gun offers the strongest fleet-wide benefit because it could also modernize thirteen existing British capital ships.

Brian Lightbody's Military Heroes is recommended for concise biographies that preserve their subjects' flaws, illustrated by racing driver and First World War ace Eddie Rickenbacker.

They could badly damage or even stop the invasion force, but maintaining them would require a much larger garrison and layered air defense.

A Haynes-style U-boat manual opens discussion of Type VII machinery, snorkels, and why late-war improvements could not overturn the adapting Allied anti-submarine system.

According to the featured Haynes manual, yes: it drew in fresh air and expelled diesel-engine air through the installation.

Escape of the Amethyst portrays a ship captain forced into a tense political contest over safe conduct, responsibility, and British national standing during the Yangtze Incident.

Both could be built in parallel, but capital-ship work would inevitably reduce how quickly escorts could be produced.

It would cause a major alliance and presidential-control crisis, probably forcing the agency to be renamed and reorganized.

A passage on wartime escort construction shows that prefabrication was as much an organizational challenge as a technical one in established British yards.

The same cat is claimed to have turned up alive in too many later places, which makes the story doubtful.

Britain would be extremely angry, but the incident would probably be resolved diplomatically because the two countries would remain allies.

Malcolm Wright's illustrated camouflage volumes are recommended as accessible visual guides covering cruisers, escorts, destroyers, and sloops such as the Black Swan class.

A combined installation could be the more practical retrofit for an older Type VII, even though snorkel exhaust created development and detection tradeoffs.

Usually not if the state is determined; an ally's restraint often supplies diplomatic cover for a decision the state already prefers.

An Imperial War Museum picture book surveys maritime warfare through cruiser blockades, kite balloons, submarine chasers, and a captured submarine.

Yes; that timing is plausible and the ship might even enter service earlier.

Battleship Sailors uses HMS Warspite's crew to show how unequal pay cuts, rumor, and weakened trust produced the Invergordon unrest.

Fisher's Face presents Admiral Jacky Fisher's affection for sailors, hostility to inherited status barriers, and belief that social reform supported combat effectiveness.

The chronology must first be altered, and a cautious exchange or negotiation would be more likely than an immediate battle.

New shells were required because wartime stocks could only be maintained for a limited time, even if many remained unused.

Longer-range sailing would probably begin earlier, but the immediate wider changes would be limited.

The miss let the incident be set aside; hitting and sinking the British submarine would have created a serious alliance crisis.

It fundamentally recast the relationship, replacing assumptions of equality with the language of a special friendship and influence beyond Britain's weight.

Possibly; after rounding the Cape the fleet might reach the Mediterranean and Europe, with outcomes ranging from contact to religious conflict.

Ken Small's The Forgotten Dead recounts the legal and bureaucratic campaign to buy a submerged Sherman tank as a memorial to American servicemen killed during wartime training.

France decided those conversions were unnecessary for its requirements and pursued other aviation choices instead.

Three fragile period magazines cover the Mediterranean Fleet, Coastal Command, and the Atlantic bridge, linking naval and air dimensions of maritime war.

HMS Captain is a leading example, although even disastrous ships and awkward ocean-going monitors taught navies something.

Britain might make the sale, but would probably balance it by selling the other carrier to Brazil.

Both would be unrated brigs of some type; the exact label would depend on rig, hull form, and purpose.

Possibly in a very broad sense, but calling that active ship combat is debatable; older capital and depot ships offer clearer comparisons.

Argentina would probably deploy them, and the larger fleet might change which major cruiser was exposed and sunk.

They can survive for a long time, but limited surveys and heavy fishing mean intact remains cannot be assumed.

Completion becomes much more likely if a Lion is already advanced when Britain discovers Yamato's eighteen-inch armament.

Likely five-inch/38 guns, better optical systems, machinery improvements, and internal rearrangement, constrained by money and topweight.