 The author of this volume has presented the results of detailed examination of the British action that took place in the Southern hemisphere in the eighteenth century. In fact, he goes well beyond the descriptive analysis of the shipwrecks by considering the ships and cargoes as embodiments of the social relations of that historical period. The content of the publication is challenging the traditional approaches to the subject and provides a respective emphasizing the diversity and richness of the British action also focusing on its complexity.
The volume presents the edited version of the doctoral thesis of its author. The readers appreciated the well researched and perfectly structured materials making this book a very good reference source for all interested people. The book has joined together numerous recent works in the field of maritime archaeology and gives valuable contribution to the historical archaeology.
According to the reviews by the experts in this area, the present volume is a remarkable piece of scholarship and shall be recommended as a must-read to all people with deep professional interest in the naval history and maritime archaeology; however, the general readers will also find the content interesting.
 The author of this interesting volume draws on both literary and archaeological evidence when performing his examination of the significant role played by the boat in Egyptian belief, ritual and in everyday life. The content of the book will interest both historians and naval enthusiasts. The text has been illustrated with numerous detailed and informative photographs of boat models as well as many paintings together with the line drawings of the boats.
The author has also provided description of the boat building process which used to be there in ancient Egypt on the basis of the boat models that were found in the tombs; he has also used some remains of the boats found during archaeological digs. There is also a good glossary of the terminology included in the book for easy reference. In fact one chapter of the volume is devoted solely to the sources of evidence used.
The section dealing with the boat building addresses the woodworking techniques commonly used at those times, harbors and boat construction yards, and all other aspects. Particular attention has been paid by the author to the boats in ritual and belief, and to ancient Egyptian boats from Old, Middle and New Kingdom, etc.
 Obviously, water is the most fundamental resource considered the basis of all life on our planet, and this resource is becoming increasingly important issue and potential source of conflict in today's world. The present fascinating volume setting out numerous ingenious methods used by the ancient human societies to gather, transport and store water, is a very timely book taking into account a profligacy and overextraction threatening the existence of the watercourses and aquifers that for millennia have been supplying people's needs for the water.
The book is intended to provide readers with a general overview of the water technologies established by some of the ancient human civilizations. No publication on water technologies of the ancient times might be considered complete without discussions of the engineering developments of the Greeks and Romans, and these have been covered in the present volume together with the examination of how American societies of that historical period accommodated their water requests.
The text of the book is really wide-ranging and offering some practical and effective technical solutions to the crisis taking place in today's water supply. Readers will find valuable insights made by the author into the ancient water technologies which underpin most of the contemporary practices of water engineering and management.
 The initial setting for Act One was the Mediterranean on which the curtain was rung up early, several days before Britain's declaration of war. Here the Admiralty's plans to withdraw all their dreadnoughts to Home waters had gone awry. France had been slow to build such ships; by July 1914 she had completed no more than four, of which only one had been transferred from Brest to Toulon.
Since Germany's partners in the Triple Alliance, Austria-Hungary and Italy, each had three dreadnoughts in the Mediterranean, the Admiralty had to leave a squadron of battle cruisers at Malta. The Inflexible, Indefatigable and Indomitable, with eight 12-inch guns and a designed speed of 25.5 knots, were supported by the 1st CS of four armored cruisers, Black Prince, Defence, Duke of Edinburgh and Warrior, which bristled with 9.2-inch, 7.5-inch and 6-inch guns, but could go no faster than 23 knots.
These seven ships, together with four 25.5-knot, 6-inch-gunned light cruisers of the 'Town' class and a flotilla of destroyers, came under the command of Admiral Sir Berkeley Milne, who owed his rank and his appointment more to his talents as a courtier than to his professional ability. As Fisher wrote to Churchill in 1912: 'In regard to what you have done in the appointment of Sir Berkeley Milne, you have betrayed the Navy. You are aware that he is unfitted to be the senior admiral afloat, as you have now made him.'..
 And here is one more interesting publication on the naval history. Though the title of this book mentions Jutland, in fact this volume is much more ambitious. Andrew Gordon, the author of the present great work, has used that famous naval battle as the top exhibit to demonstrate the evolution of the British Navy. He also provides an excellent professional explanation of the Admiral Tryon's navy campaign.
At the very first glance, this publication is a sort of examination of the several specific tactical decisions made in the course of the Battle of Jutland explaining the major differences between the so-called "command climate" the battle fleets under Beatty and under Jellicoe. The description of the actions provided by the author, together with the timeline breakdown, together with the discussion and conclusions relating to the different conflicting timelines and narrative texts put forth have all made this publication to be found very popular among all naval history enthusiasts as well as in the community of professional naval historians.
The readers should also note a remarkably thoughtful and careful examination performed by the author of the manner the organizational culture and also the leadership norms in the British Royal Navy shifted at the times of the unchallenged supremacy...
 This book written by Arthur Sellwood tells us about one of the most famous naval vessels of the past - MHS Li Wo. Subect ship had been constructed in 1935 with the original intention to be running the passenger transportations on the Yangtze river. Some years after that, in the year 1940, the vessel was requisitioned and subsequently commissioned as HMS Li Wo into the Royal Navy.
Quite shortly before the Singapore's surrender which followed in 1942, the vessel got an order to be heading for Batavia (now Jakarta) in Indonesia. The vessel had come under the massive air attach and had to confront the convoy of the Japanese Navy forces that was heading for the Sumatra Island being escorted by a whole squadron of warships.
Though HMS Li Wo was armed only with the one four-inch gun and two Lewis guns, they made a decision to attack. After that war, Commander of the vessel was deservedly awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross for the bravery he did demonstrate. In his brilliant work, the author has made a good attempt to piece together nearly unbelievable story of the most decorated small vessel in the Royal Navy fleet, and this is a story which might otherwise got lost in the archives of the Admiralty...
 This is a truly beautiful title containing masterful information content accompanied with perfect illustrations. In this comprehensive volume, the author has set out not only political and social, but also the technological backgrounds in which the galley and galleon did arise and drive their evolution; he has also managed to perform a thorough examination of the naval gun technology considered a primary driving force in the above stated progressions.
The readers will definitely appreciate the format where the topical chapters are alternating with the technical descriptions of the naval battles. In this work, he has included all peripherical information possessed, for example relating to the naval warfare before gunpowder, world trade of those times and emerging maritime powers, revolution of the gunpowder, confrontations between France and England, in addition to many other important aspects giving people a complete and clear picture of the subject.
John Guilmartin has provided readers with an excellent professional review of the changeover that occurred in naval power. All of the info that have been presented in this book has been perfectly arranged in a remarkably readable style making it very understandable even for the newcomers. Definitely recommended to all people willing to improve their knowledge of the naval history.
 We have shared a happy collaboration in this book. Our friendship even survived the translation of the texts for Appendices One to Five, where we were concerned to achieve a delicate balance between producing a readable English translation for Byzantinists and the general public and preserving the literal meaning of technical language as closely as possible for maritime and military historians.
John Pryor has been responsible for the historical research and for the writing of the text. Elizabeth Jeffreys has been responsible for the editing of the texts in Appendices One to Five, for the translation of Greek texts, for matters philological, and for the interpretation of the milieux of the Byzantine sources. We are indebted to Ahmad Shboul for his collaboration in Appendix Eight... The authors of the volume have conducted a very thorough examination if both development and further evolution of the Dromon war galley together with the Chelandion, its relative, from their original appearance until supersession by Galea.
Among the salient technical features of these vessels were the spurs at the bows lateen sails, special two-banked system of the oarage, and the "Greek Fire" - their primary weapon. The volume is contextualizing the technical characteristics of those vessels within the history of Byzantine fleets, covering the associated logistical problems and strategic objectives.
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