J. J. Colledge

If the reader is interested in the nuts and bolts of Naval Life, this is a must have book. Keyed by the names one gets a short description of every vessel employed by the RN since the 1400s. There are class descriptions of some of the larger classes of warships, and many individual notations of armament suites. Not to be read line by line but a constant reference source for the historian, and smart-ass. This compendium is lacking in humour, but full of revelations (there really was a sloop called the Surprize, and it was one!)
I've also got Volume II, dealing with many very small ships and hired ships, where one can even find the "Bounty" of mutiny fame.… (meer)

An alphabetical list of the ships planned and built over a five hundred year period by the RN. It's a wonderful resource, and I'm including Vol. 2, that deals with rented hired captured, and requisitioned vessels as well. No pictures, no diagrams but if you have access to that information from another source, this book has all the rest for the huge number of entries for the sailing navy. Certainly not so good for construction since the 1890's, but there's a lot more stuff on those ships available from other sources such as Janes. There's only information on prizes if you are looking for non-RN entries.… (meer)