Comments: Softcover, 352 pages, more than 200 black-and-white photos, 42 line drawings
ISBN: 978-1-84832-099-4
Price: £45 ($63)
Publisher: Seaforth Publishing/Pen and Sword Books
From the publisher: Gradually evolving from the masted steam frigate of the mid-19th century, the first modern cruiser is not easy to define. For the sake of this book, the starting points are Iris and Mercury of 1875. They were the Royal Navy’s first steel warships, designed primarily for steam rather than sail, and formed the basis of a line of succeeding cruiser classes.
The story ends with the last armored cruisers, which were succeeded by the first battlecruisers (originally called armored cruisers), and with the last Third Class cruisers (Topaze class), all conceived before 1906. Coverage, therefore, dovetails precisely with Friedman’s previous book on British cruisers, although this one also includes the wartime experience of the earlier ships.
The two central themes are cruisers for the fleet and cruisers for overseas operations, including (but not limited to) trade protection. The distant-waters aspect covers the belted cruisers, which were nearly capital ships, intended to deal with foreign second-class battleships in the Far East. The main enemies contemplated during this period were France and Russia, and the book includes British assessments of their strength and intentions, with judgments as to how accurate those assessments were.
FSM says: Amazing period photographs, in-depth discussion, extensive line drawings of the types presented.