James F. Miller (1)

This looks like a nice monograph. It is nicely produced, profusely illustrated with some outstanding photographs - some very well reproduced over two of the book's relatively large pages - and the text is, in the main, pretty good and an easy read.

What is not good is annoyingly bad! There is no contents list because there are no chapters at all - the text runs from page 9 to page 189 and is effectively one long chapter. Occasionally, there is a double space so the reader has some encouragement to take a breath and, rather less occasionally there is an asterisk after a paragraph in the centre of the page, meaning take a slightly longer break, I presume. There are no headings to any of the paragraphs and there is no index - this is an appalling decision by the commissioning editor at Berlinn whom, I hope, went down with his ship! No chapters, paragraph headings, an index - the design and layout of this book is a disgrace. Furthermore, it is an improper use of italics to use them for each and every one of the photograph captions, with ship and boat names not in italics; it should have been the other way round, with ship and boat names in italics particularly as these names are, correctly, in italics in the main body of the text! Thank goodness there are four simple maps on pages 7 and 8.

Yet the book is not bad for what it conveys through text and some 132 high quality black-and-white photographs, of which no less than 33 are on two pages and a fair number on one whole page. Indeed, this book is worth buying for the photographs alone.

There are mistakes, of course. Figure 18's caption points out Lord Jellicoe but, at the time, he was Admiral Sir John Jellicoe (First Sea Lord from Nov 1916 to Dec 1917, he was not created Viscount Jellicoe of Scapa Flow until 7 Mar 1918). On page 169 there is a shocking howler - A V Alexander is described as the First Sea Lord and an Admiral but he was a minister, First Lord of the Admiralty.

Throughout the book the author refers to aircraft squadrons, for example, as 822 Squadron - 822 Naval Air Squadron it should always be (or 822 NAS). Same with air stations, they are either RNAS Nonsuch (Royal Naval Air Station Nonsuch) or RAF Nonsuch. Front line Naval Air Squadrons are, and were, 8xx or 18xx and second line squadrons 7xx or 17xx. It is important to differentiate between the Royal Air Force and the rather better, rather more successful and older, historically, air branch of the Royal Navy (whether Royal Naval Air Service or Fleet Air Arm).

Many of the photograph captions are very good but some are only adequate. How much better that Fig 12 told the reader more than just 'HMS Hampshire' - class and other details about the ship would have been good.

Fig 11 is indeed a remarkable photograph of HM The King, (Acting) Admiral Sir David Beatty - Commander-in-Chief Home Fleet - and his staff, and the Captain of HMS Queen Elizabeth and his officers, on board the battleship in Jun 1917. Some 95 officers are in the photograph: three of flag rank (the King, Beatty and a Commodore First Class, who is Beatty's Captain of the Fleet), wearing the stripes of a Rear Admiral), 17 Captains and Commanders, 1 Major of the Royal Marines - all these identifiable by the one row of 'scrambled egg' on the peak of their caps, a senior British Army officer (a Colonel or above) and 12 Midshipmen. Two of those with brass hats wear aiguillettes - the Flag Commander, the Admiral's Secretary (white distinction cloth between the gold lace stripes) - and next to them is the Fleet Surgeon (Commander's rank, scarlet distinction cloth); an Engineer Captain may be in the photograph but I cannot identify him. The Captain of HMS QE is on Beatty's right and at least four of the other 'brass hats' will be ship's officers - the Commander (XO), the Navigating Officer, the Engineer Commander and the Fleet Paymaster. This does not account for all 17 'brass hats' in the photograph and, perhaps, others were additional because of the war. The Royal Marines Major would be a ship's officer too, in command of a sizeable Royal Marines detachment in the battleship. The Army officer may be on the staff for liaison duties.

The author writes (caption, Fig 23) that the vessel from which the King is departing could be a submarine but, with the White Ensign astern, one can't but think there's an awful lot of kit and deck fittings on the casing if she is indeed on of His Majesty's Submarines! Yet. at the bottom right of the photograph the railing does seem to guard against what looks more like a submarine as one looks towards the waterline. The author says the only clue in the original is that the vessel is a 'picquet' but picket boats or 'picquet boats' were usually small craft embarked in large battleships for personnel transfer, boats larger than whalers and later motor boats. At Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, in 1972 there were a number of old picket boats, salvaged from old battleships before they were scrapped - they were used for training cadets in basic seamanship on the River Dart. Anyway, it is fun having a photograph like this to ponder over and wonder about!… (meer)