Famous Sea Fights, from Salamis to Tsu-Shima

Fourteen battles, grouped into three ages of naval war: oar and close fighting, sail and gun, then steam, armour and rifled artillery. It opens with the Greek triremes at Salamis in 480 BC and runs through Actium, Sluys, Lepanto, the Armada and Trafalgar to Hampton Roads, Lissa, the Yalu, Santiago and the destruction of the Russian fleet at Tsu-shima in 1905. Atteridge, who published the 1911 original under the name John Richard Hale, promised non-technical and popular language, and the tactics stay clear without a chart at hand. He argues a case as well, opening with Bacon on the value of commanding the sea and saying plainly that he wants public interest in sea power kept alive so the navy is not neglected. It doubles as a short history of how the warship changed, from oared galley to steel.