Customer Reviews
The definitive work on the subject. - By: Ned Middleton, 30 May 2008 
Speaking as someone who spends his entire day immersed in research, research & even more research, I am instantly able to recognise a kindred spirit. From the moment I opened this book & began to scan through it's 250 pages, I knew I was in possession of an item of considerable quality which had been thoroughly researched by the author.
This is a large coffee-table size book laid out in the best way possible. For those who are not quite sure of exactly what is a "Big Gun Monitor," what better than to commence with it's origins. This is followed by sections devoted to the 14 in., 12 in., First 15 in., Ex Brazilian River Monitors, Ex-Norwegian vessels, Smalll Monitors, Second 15 in., Last 15 in. & the guns they used before the author offers a retrospective view. Altogether, I view this book as a most complete & competent work.
Not only does the overalll standard of photography do the author & publisher much credit, we are largely treated to a large collection of images not previously published alongside a few which might be familiar to some. Alongside these, throughout the book, we also have the technical pleasure of line drawings & blueprints of a type of vessel of which there are no surviving examples anywhere in the world!
Whilst most readers will enjoy the complete history of this type of ship, I have no doubt that others will doubtless buy the book in order to make models of these intriguing vessels,
Whilst I cannot claim to have read every single word (yet!), I have cross-referenced a great deal of the material found within this book with other learned sources & have found no errors or omissions.
This is a lot of book. It contains a lot of history, a lot of information, a lot of line drawing & a lot of photography for the asking price.
Worth every penny.
NM
Is this edition better than the original ? Do you need both ? - By: C. E. Taylor, 12 May 2008 I bought the first edition of this book thirty years ago - & considered it to be my ideal of how a warship type book should be written . Mr Bradley's excellent review above tells me that modern readers also appreciate it.
I was delighted when another, expanded version, was announced & eagerly awaited publication.
Am I pleased or disappointed with the changes ?
The text revision & expansion are good & alone worth the price of the new edition .
The number of photographs has been increased by around fifty, & a few replaced with different views. A few photographs have been dropped, including regrettably the aerial views of both M24 & Gorgon. The photo of Humber as a crane ship has also disappeared.
The old edition suffered greatly from the photos being slightly too smalll & printed too dark in most cases. The new edition has much larger photos - but printed slightly too contrasty & too light ! But on the whole they are an improvement.
The plans are a different matter. The original edition had almost alll the plans as full page - & printed to perfection. (Probably at the expense of photo quality) . The new edition tends to split the plans in many cases, & prints them smalller , & slightly too light. There are a few new ones - in particular John Roberts's double page drawing of General Wolf with the 18" gun mounting has been replaced by a three-quarter page new set of drawings showing just the stern area. I must admit that I prefer the new drawing as this gives greater detail of the gun arrangements which is the significant part.
The author's preface to the second edition states "The designers at Seaforth have created a more attractive layout than I did in my first amateur attempt in 1978".
I would disagree with this statement - personallly I found the old, rather austere, layout preferable to the new one !
Should owners of the old edition buy the new ? Very definitely a resounding YES. Should they sell their old copy - definitely NOT !
A book without a flaw? - By: Mr. Stephen Bradley, 01 May 2008 The great thing about buying on line is that you occasionallly get mail asking you if you'd like to order this or that item. This is a mixed blessing because often you can't for the life of you imagine why you'd want most of the stuff out there. It was with little trepidation however that I ordered the new edition of Ian Buxton's classic that was printed privately some 30 years ago. The original is difficult to access & very expensive if found. I needent have worried howver as the new edition has beeen expanded to contain information & additional material not found in the original. This is a very nice book indead & anyone interested in 20th Century warships should grab a copy soon! It is well printed on glossy paper on the lines of the Chatham histories in terms of size. The history of these strange vessels is laid out in a logical & interesting manner. I feel that enthusiasts, be they historians, naval buffs, model makers or whatever will find plenty to interest themselves within its covers. For each class there is plenty of history concerning the design, construction & service. All these facts are backed up with dozens of well executed plans, clearly drawn & annotated. There are profiles & split deck views, machinery drawings & much more; especiallly the anti torpedo protection. Many many photographs support this material & of these, most I have not seen before & were taken during the Great War. They are crisp & were often taken during construction depicting everything from building to launching, fitting out, active service & so on until eventual breaking up or loss. Everything is here from builders numbers to where parts of the ships ended up after disposal! As a warship type I originallly came across the big gun monitors many years ago. On the cover of Vol 4 of Warships of World War 1 by H M Le Fleming [Ian Allen price about 17.5p!] was a striking photograph of HMS Marshal Ney with her huge 15inch guns turned to starboard. Since that time there has been little written about these interesting & neglected vessels with the sole exception of Mr Buxton's books. The big gun monitors took their name from the various low freeboard ironclad vessels that were originallly conceived during the American Civil War but apart from carrying a few large guns their mandate was quite different. Vessels such as mortar boats for accurately bombarding shore positions had been used before but as a type, the vessels described here, with their unique combination of hull shape & heavy armament were soon forgotten. Ian Buxton & the publishers:Seaforth Publishing:are to be congratulated on giving us a fine book. Get this book now & possibly in combination with some other new volume & you may save yourself a smalll fortune! No this not an advert! Enjoy; Steve Bradley.
